Utah ski resorts are turning off their snowmaking. And, right on queue, nature is turning on its spigots.
Both Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain have extended their snowmaking operations weeks past their usual end dates as those Park City ski hills and others around the state battle one of the warmest, driest winters on record. However, operators of both resorts say they expect to end their snowmaking season within the next couple weeks.
The reasons are twofold. For one, they believe they’ll have deep enough coverage on their groomed runs — or at least enough backup snow stashed away — that it will hold up through April. Second, a storm is brewing (finally!).
“Maybe not a huge storm overall, but it’s [a] good start,” wrote Evan Thayer, the Utah forecaster for OpenSnow.com, in a Daily Snow blog entry titled “At last,” “and things should get better next week if trends hold.”
About a foot of snow is expected to fall in Park City between Tuesday and Thursday, according to OpenSnow. Closer to 20 inches could fall in the Cottonwood Canyons. Plus, another storm is on the horizon that could deliver another 18 inches of snow in the Wasatch Mountains by Feb. 18.
Unfortunately, Salt Lake City, which has seen almost no measurable snowfall this winter, won’t be getting in on the action. The National Weather Service predicts rain throughout the week, with a brief dry window over the weekend. The OpenSnow forecast doesn’t show even a chance of snow in the valley until late February.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Over 1100 new snowmaking guns are part of Deer Valley’s massive new East Village expansion, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.
“Snow levels will stay somewhat elevated,” Thayer wrote. “They won’t be down to the lower valleys or even close to that. Right now, during the heart of the storm, we have them around 6,500 [feet].”
More snow will be needed to resuscitate Utah’s snowpack, though. It’s the lowest it has been since at least 1980, and most of the state’s water basins are at 50% of median or below. Closest to normal is the Bear River Basin, at 68% of the 30-year median. The Lower Sevier Basin is in the worst state, at 20% of the median.
At Park City Mountain, skiers and snowboarders have noticed the rapid desiccation of the snowmaking pond under the Orange Bubble lift. Spokesperson John Kanaly said there’s no need to panic. That pond will refill itself.
“When people see any of those ponds drain,” he said, “it demonstrates how hard our crew is working.”
The decision to soon pull the plug on snowmaking has little to do with water resources, Kanaly said. Park City Mountain has actually used less water than is typical this winter, he said, because warm weather has limited snowmaking opportunities. Instead, the decision to stop is part of a cost-benefit analysis.
It takes a considerable amount of energy — read: money — to make snow. So, the resort would like to produce enough snow to ensure “quality” skiing and riding until the posted April 14 closing date without wasting money on excess snow, which could also gum up summer operations.
“Primarily, it’s when we’re confident we will have a quality surface that will last through closing day,” Kanaly said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t fix things here or there on an as-needed basis.”
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(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Snow machine at Canyons Village, Park City Mountain Resort, on Tuesday, Dec 17, 2024.
Park City Mountain won’t just put a fresh coat on open runs in the final weeks of snowmaking, Kanaly said. It also plans to drop the rope on some runs that haven’t seen any action yet this winter.
A similar strategy is being implemented across the ridge at Deer Valley. Garret Lang, the senior director of mountain operations, said the resort — which planned to unveil a massive, seven-lift expansion project this year — will open more runs before it pulls the plug on its snow guns.
“We’re getting very strategic now,” Lang said. “We’re cognizant that we’re in the early February, which is later than we traditionally go. So, we’re looking at signature runs that we still haven’t made snow on.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Homeward Bound pond is pictured near the summit of Deer Valley on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.
Deer Valley is also not in any danger of running out of water for snowmaking. In June, the Park City council approved a surplus water agreement that will allow the ski-only resort to access an additional 300-acre-feet — about 98 million gallons — of water between October and April. The water can’t be used in the expanded terrain because it must flow back into the Weber River drainage.
Water for snowmaking in the East Village expansion terrain comes from the Jordanelle Reservoir. The resort has rights to draw 294 million gallons, which is less than 1% of the reservoir’s total water, according to resort developers.
Deer Valley has been trying to stretch that water and minimize its energy use by installing the most efficient snowmaking systems available, Lang said. The resort installed a Lidar system to find hot spots and cover them before they become bare spots.
So, even if nature decides to renege on the predicted storms, Utah skiers and snowboarders can rest assured that at least a few months of ski season still remain.
Still, Garrett said he hopes it comes.
“We would welcome the snow anytime,” he said.