Powder hounds, rejoice. Mountain snow is in the forecast through Christmas.
But level expectations. The National Weather Service predicts an atmospheric river will bring anywhere from about a foot, to a few inches, to a mere dusting at the resorts closest to Salt Lake City between Wednesday and Thursday.
The biggest Utah snow totals, forecasters predict, will fall in the western Uintas and in the state’s southern mountains.
Brian Head Resort (about a 3.5 hour drive south from Salt Lake City) is expecting the most of any Utah resort sites the weather services monitors, with anywhere from 6 inches on the low-end up to 18 inches.
The highest totals are forecast for Kings Peak, Utah’s highest mountain summit, located in the Uintas. Forecasters predict 17 inches of snow there, with the potential for 20 inches at the highest and 5 inches at the low-end.
Accompanying these snow totals, the weather service issued a winter weather advisory for locations in the southern mountains above 8,500 feet from 5 a.m. Wednesday through 11 p.m. Thursday. Experts expect possible wind gusts of up to 55 mph and urge caution from drivers, especially overnight.
Below 8,000 feet in southern Utah, forecasts show moderate to heavy rainfall.
Forecasters issued a nearly identical winter weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains as well, but it starts at 11 a.m. Wednesday and applies to locations above 9,000 feet.
The chance for mountain snow returns Friday into Saturday, the weather service predicted Tuesday afternoon, but it’s unclear how much could fall or exactly where.
“No headlines for this second system at this time,” a forecaster wrote earlier Tuesday, “though the current forecast would lean toward winter weather advisories for most mountain areas of Utah Friday into Saturday.”
Impact on ski resorts
Dry and warm winter weather has been a scourge for mountain resorts across the west, according to a recent blog from Inntopia, a booking and customer data platform powered by Outside.
At some lower-base elevation resorts in Utah, where Salt Lake City is on pace for its warmest December, paths of packed white snow slither down otherwise brown mountains. Even at higher-elevations, grass can be seen poking through the scant layer of snow. Evergreen trees that line runs lack their traditional powder coating.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.
Booking data from Utah, Colorado, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana show that the pace of reservations in November dropped by nearly 20% for arrivals planned in the next six months.
Tom Foley, director of Business Intelligence for Inntopia, said that the “‘one-two’ punch from low snowfall and a troubled economy was a significant blow as we recorded the weakest booking pace we’ve seen since June 2022.”
Many resorts, he said, pushed back opening days. Resorts in the region had only been able to open 11% of terrain by Nov. 30 — “except for a handful of destinations.” In past years, Foley said, resorts normally boast 35-40% of terrain open by the end of November.
Ahead of Wednesday’s predicted snow, Jared Winkler, Brighton Resort’s vice president of marketing, said he was cautiously optimistic. He’s been burned before by forecasts that ultimate “fizzle.”
“We’re just excited to see colder temperatures, because that means the snow we have is going to hold up better. And then also,” he said, “we can start making some snow again.”
So far, Winkler said, there have been enough cold days that crews were able to get down a layer of manufactured snow, which is how the resort was able to open. That snow, he said, is wetter and almost forms a layer of ice on the ground that “sticks around pretty well.”
If the predicted 8 inches does fall, he said the resort should be able to build on that — and hopefully open more terrain. On Tuesday, five of the resort’s seven lifts were open and about 33% of its runs.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.
Despite the lackluster season start, he said the business is doing fine thanks to preseason sales. Guests, he added, have still been showing up at Brighton for lessons, rentals and day and night skiing.
Stoke, as they say, for the season remains high.
Even at lower-level resorts, where the base area may look “a little rough,” Winkler said conditions improve further up the mountain.
At Brian Head Resort on Tuesday afternoon, marketing manager Amber Palmer said guests were already arriving in anticipation of the storm.
She said the resort has bucked regional trends with 60% of its lifts open, thanks to its high altitude (at just below 10,000 feet, it has the state’s highest base elevation) and their recent investment in snowmaking.
More snow, Palmer said, could mean the resort opens its high-speed, four-person Giant Steps Express lift sooner.
She said the resort is expecting more people to arrive in the coming days to ski it, if snow falls as expected.
“I think we’ll get an influx of people,” she said, “and hopefully be able to offer that winter experience everybody’s looking for right now for the holidays.”
Expected snow totals, by inch:
Alta: 10
Beaver Mountain: 9
Brian Head Resort: 14
Brighton Resort: 8
Canyons Village: 4
Cedar Breaks: 13
Cherry Peak Resort: 2
Deer Valley: 3
Eagle Point Resort: 2
Kings Peak: 17
Nordic Valley: 0
Park City Mountain Resort: 4
Powder Mountain: 1
Snowbasin Resort: 3
Snowbird Resort: 11
Solitude Mountain Resort: 6
Sundance Mountain Resort: 0
— Source: National Weather Service, as forecast for 5 p.m. Tuesday through 5 p.m. Friday.