A significant winter storm is taking aim at Utah mountain later this week. Heavy snowfall is expected to bring multiple powder days to the Park City area, just in time for the President’s Day holiday weekend.
Last week, a moisture-laden storm helped us to climb to 78% of median snowpack for the date, and we are no longer threatening record minimum snowpack levels.
While the storm was good for our snowpack’s bottom line, it wasn’t exactly the fluffy Utah powder we are used to. In fact, those days have been few and far between so far this season, especially on the Wasatch Back.
The great news is that this upcoming storm is an “equal opportunity” system. All resorts across the state should get significant mountain snowfall. As a forecaster, I don’t have to add disclaimers and caveats regarding who will get hit and who will get missed. This storm, finally, is going to bring joy to all.
The storm will ramp up later in the day on Thursday and snowfall should fall through Thursday night into Friday morning. By the time lifts open on Friday, we should already have 6-12” of snow on the ground. Perhaps a headache for commuters, but a welcome sight for skiers.
Snow continues through the day on Friday with the powder only getting deeper. By Saturday morning, we are looking to roughly double our totals with an additional 6-12” over the Park City mountains.
Another powder day on Saturday is likely before snow showers finally begin to wind down. Overall storm totals are likely to be 1 to 2 feet on the mountain by Saturday evening, with pockets of higher amounts possible.
Sunday will be a break day before we see snow showers likely redeveloping on Monday as another, weaker system moves into the area.
It is hard to draw up a better looking forecast for skiers over the holiday weekend. A big storm to freshen things up to start the weekend. Then, more manageable smaller storms during the subsequent week.
Winter will be over before you know it, so get out there and enjoy the powder while you can!
For up-to-date forecasts, you can subscribe to Evan’s Utah Daily Snow forecast on OpenSnow.com and the OpenSnow app.