Utah stands to receive yet more snow as an active pattern continues to generate storms that impact the drought-stricken West.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a winter storm watch for high-elevation areas in southern Utah, where accumulations of 6 to 14 inches or more of heavy snow are forecast for Thursday into Friday. However, weather service models posted Wednesday morning project snow to fall throughout the state, including close to another foot of snow in the Wasatch Mountains before the weekend.
The storm system is forecast to roll in from California, where heavy rain and snow are forecast for most of the Golden State Wednesday and Thursday. The storm precipitation is expected to make its way into Utah Thursday, said KSL meteorologist Kristen Van Dyke.
It's expected to impact southwest Utah with a mix of rain in the valleys and snow in higher-elevation areas by about midday Thursday, according to Van Dyke. The precipitation will pick up in central and northern Utah later in the afternoon, also providing valley rain and mountain snow into the evening. The valley rain is projected to turn into snow late Thursday night into Friday morning.
"By the time you head out the door Friday morning, you can see snow ongoing," she said. "It's going to be likely for the morning commute, so ... it might be a little messy out there Friday morning."
Some lingering showers may persist in some parts of the state Friday, but most of the storm is forecast to clear out by the late afternoon.
The weather service alert notes that "heavy, wet snow" is expected again, which is good for the snowpack accumulation but may cause more of the same issues as a storm that impacted the state during the New Year's weekend, including slick roads, broken tree limbs and power outages.
While 6 to 12 inches of snow are projected for high-elevation areas in southern Utah, including Alton and Brian Head, the alert notes up to 16 inches of snow is possible by the Pine Valley Mountains. The weather service model also projects close to a foot of snow for Cottonwood Canyon areas like Alta, as well as parts of the West Uintas.
The Wasatch Back communities are forecast to receive 3 to 4 inches of snow, while valley communities from the Cache Valley through the Wasatch Front and even into southern Utah are projected to receive another 1 to 3 inches of snow. However, Van Dyke said those accumulations could go up if the rain switches over to snow earlier than expected.
"That's what happened with the last storm," she said.
Full seven-day forecasts for areas across Utah can be found online, at the KSL Weather Center.
