SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Friday, Utah! It’s another soggy day for northern and central Utah, but the bulk of precipitation is behind us. Southern Utah should stay clear of the wet weather, but there’s a slight chance of a stray shower.
A cold front is slated to move in this afternoon bringing valley rain and mountain snow. The backside of the cold front will be drier so widespread showers will become more isolated and continue drying out as we get into the evening.
Strong winds will exist as the cold front passes, especially in the northwest part of the state. A Wind Advisory is in effect for Box Elder and Tooele Counties until 7:00 pm. Sustained winds out of the west will rise to 20-30 mph with gusts up to 55 mph. While the rest of the state is not in an advisory, gusty conditions will still exist.
Winter alerts are in effect. The central mountains are also under a Winter Weather Advisory which expires tonight at 11:00. Meanwhile, Winter Storm Warnings are in place for the Western Uintas, Wasatch Mountains, and the Wasatch Plateau/Book Cliffs until 11:00 Saturday night. Central mountains are looking at 6-12 inches of snow and northern mountains could get 8-16 inches by Friday night. Saturday brings another round of northern mountain snow with an additional 8-16 inches possible for the Wasatch Range and western Uintas.
The combination of several new layers of heavy snow and strong winds is making for very dangerous avalanche conditions.
Avalanche alerts are in effect for northern and central mountains as the avalanche risk climbs too high for backcountry skiing. If you do decide to hit backcountry slopes this weekend you need to travel with a buddy as human-triggered avalanches are very likely on slopes 30° or steeper and can be triggered remotely from below.
Saturday brings more widespread valley rain and mountain snow to northern Utah, followed by another weaker system on Sunday evening. Wet weather should be gone by Monday afternoon.
Once the precipitation clears Monday morning, things will dry out and turn colder with highs only in the 30s north, and upper 40s to low 50s across the far SW. The pattern remains calm and near normal through most of next week including New Year’s Day.
We’ll keep you posted on the latest updates in our 4Warn Weather forecast both on-air and online, we are Good4Utah!
Winter alerts through Saturday
Valley rain/mountain snow through Sunday
High avalanche risk
Wind advisory in West Desert
Drying out Monday
Colder next week
Chilly but quiet New Years