SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Thursday or happy Friday eve, Utah! We are coming off the most significant storm of the season thus far. All of our resorts over the last 48 hours reported over a foot of snow with several picking up over 2 feet, while a few even picked up over 3 feet!

Our valleys picked up a bunch of snow as well with the winners being the Tooele, Salt Lake, and Utah valleys with multiple reports over a foot! After a brief reprieve earlier today, the weather will pick up through tonight as our next storm system moves in. 

This storm coming through today will be an offshoot of a low pressure that will actually move through by the back half of the weekend. The main focus of this particular storm will be in southern Utah, however, scattered snow showers will be possible across the entire state with the bulk of the moisture coming between now and the first half of Friday. 

There are active winter alerts posted due to this storm. The first is a Winter Storm Warning that is currently in effect for the southern mountains and the area around Zion National Park until 5 a.m. tomorrow. Some of the southern mountains around Brian Head and the Pine Valley are expected to receive between 12-24″ of snow during the duration of the warning along with strong wind gusts which could result in times of blowing snow. In Springdale and Rockville 1-4″ is expected while higher elevations in Zion could pick up more than 10″ of snow. 

A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect through 5 a.m. in south-central Utah which includes Kanab and Escalante, and an advisory is also in effect through the same time for Bryce Canyon Country. Within these advisories over 2″ is likely to fall with strong winds gusts. In southeastern Utah, there is also a Winter Weather Advisory for the La Sal & Abajo mountains, including the city of Monticello, until 5 p.m. Friday. 5-10″ of snow is expected while winds may gust to 40 mph. 

In northern Utah, we have a Winter Weather Advisory for the northern mountains that will run through 2 p.m. Friday. 8-14″ of snow will be possible and like the other advisories, strong winds are expected.

When it comes to accumulations through tomorrow the mountains will receive a healthy dose of snow with the southern mountains likely seeing the most at 1-2 feet. The central and northern mountains are expected to see between 4-10″. As you get a bit lower, we could see 2-5″ in our southern valleys, 1-4″ for the central valleys, and while we’re not expecting anything significant in our northern valleys a trace to 2″ will be possible, including the Wasatch Front. Mountain valleys including the Wasatch Back will have the potential to pick up between 3-7″ of snow. 

With more snow potential comes more road impacts. Through the first half of tomorrow, moderate road impacts are possible for the majority of Utah, including the entire I-15 corridor. High road impacts are expected for the mountain routes in southern Utah. 

Outside of any wet weather today we’ll get partly to mostly cloudy skies with daytime highs that will once again range about 10-15 degrees below average. Gusty winds will make it feel even colder and we’ll turn frigid again tonight with most dropping into the teens and twenties for lows. 

The best chance for wet weather on Friday will be during the first half of the day, but we won’t be able to completely eliminate the chance for snow showers, especially in the high country. Saturday at this point looks to be a mostly dry day in northern Utah with a chance we will even see a break in southern Utah early in the day. With more of a southerly flow, temperatures will moderate with highs mainly ranging in the 30s and 40s up north with 40s and 50s down south. 

By the second half of Saturday into Sunday, our next storm will start to approach. Wet weather is likely to start in southern Utah first by the second half of Saturday, then we will likely see widespread wet weather on Sunday before seeing mainly showers in northern Utah on Monday as that storm moves to the east.

At this point, forecast models are projecting another storm to be right on the heels of the storm Sunday into Monday which means more active weather is likely through at least the middle of next week. Stay tuned as we continue to fine-tune the details! 

Bottom line? Another cold day as another storm system brings more snow potential across the Beehive State!