East Canyon Reservoir, in Morgan, fed by mountain snowpack, on March 9. Utah’s statewide snowpack is nearing the highest level ever recorded for this time in the year, and more snow is in the forecast this week.
Laura Seitz, Deseret News
Friday’s storms tacked on another inch of water to Utah’s statewide mountain snowpack, boosting it to 22.9 inches by Monday afternoon, according to federal Natural Resources Conservation Service data.
That figure is only 0.2 inches below the all-time record for this point in the snow collection season. There’s also a strong chance this year’s snowpack will surpass the mid-March record as another atmospheric river event arrives in Utah this week. The record books date back to the 1980-1981 water year.
The National Weather Service on Monday issued a winter storm warning for mountain ranges in northern and southern Utah ahead of a storm forecast to arrive Tuesday, which has the potential to dump over 2 feet of snow in parts of the Wasatch Mountains by Thursday morning.
The next storm
Utah is within the path of an atmospheric river event impacting California first. KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson said, aside from a few popup showers scattered throughout the day, Utah will remain mostly dry on Monday.
Tuesday will be breezy while more showers develop in waves during the afternoon and evening. Johnson explained that wind from the south may cause some rain shadows, where one side of a mountain receives precipitation and the other side doesn’t. That happened during last week’s storm, which muted some of the precipitation totals.
Rain totals are a bit more challenging thanks to southerly winds that could cause some shadowing. That being said, the brunt of the valley rain will pair up with the cold front timing sometime Wednesday. #utwx
More details on rain as we get closer. 🌧️ pic./Tbv8wle56W
— Matthew Johnson () March 13, 2023
Precipitation is expected to strengthen Wednesday ahead of a cold front that is set to arrive in the Wasatch Front either in the late morning …read more
Source:: Deseret News – Utah News