Work week ends with scattered showers and calmer skies

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4) – Happy Friday, Utah! It’s been a very active week of weather so far and we will close out the work week today with scattered showers through the state.

The bottom line? Our active weather continues to round out the workweek with scattered showers expected through Friday before calmer skies settle in this weekend.

How about the weather records falling this week? We had three records broken yesterday: including Levan breaking their 131-YEAR-OLD record – twice! They saw 7.7″ of snow, outdoing the 1893 record of 6.0″, and 0.86″ of liquid-equivalent precipitation, beating the 1893 record of 0.70″. Kodachrome Basin State Park more than doubled their daily snowfall record of 2″ set back in 2009, receiving a whopping 4.8″. Kodachrome also hit a record precipitation record on Tuesday with 0.18″ of precipitation which more than quadrupled its previous record. Tuesday also marked a precipitation record for Deer Creek Dam with 0.55″, far surpassing its previous record of 0.37″.

Wednesday is where the bulk of our records were etched in the books. Salt Lake City International Airport beat its 106-year-old precipitation record of 0.45″ with a new 0.71″. Downtown Salt Lake City obliterated the previous record of 0.19″ with 0.78″. BYU Provo measured 0.80″ which tied their 99-year-old record. City Creek Plant saw 1.55″ which is just above their 1950 record of 1.50″. Wednesday even brought records in the south, Bryce Canyon saw 1.0″ of precipitation, firmly breaking its old record of 0.78.

Now, onto Friday! We saw a storm system deliver healthy snow to mountains and valleys in Southern Utah last night and through the overnight, and while that pulled to the east, another storm impacts us today and favors Northern and Central Utah.  Given that temperatures will be running near or slightly below average, there will be potential for both rain and snow showers in our valleys.  Outside of any wet weather skies will be partly sunny to mostly cloudy, with high temperatures across the state hitting the 30s and 40s.

Today’s quick-moving storm drops in from the northwest to keep our wet weather potential elevated. We’ll see scattered showers across the state, but showers will likely be more uniform compared to just favoring the southern two-thirds of the state. Our northwesterly flow will allow valleys to mainly see the potential of snow, and the chance of accumulation exists. While our winter alerts have expired, light road snow can be expected on the commutes for Friday. When it comes to accumulations through Friday night, southern and central mountains will likely do the best with 8-16″ locally up to 2 ft.

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Northern mountains won’t see as much, but we’ll add more snow with the Wasatch north of I-80 seeing likely 2-6″ with 5-10″ for the southern Wasatch. If everything comes together, there is a chance that spots in the southern Wasatch could see over a foot. Valleys the next couple of days may not receive any snow or up to 3″ while benches will likely see 1-4″ with up to 6″ in a few spots. For mountain valleys and the I-15 corridor between Cedar City and Nephi, 2-6″ looks possible with maybe over half a foot in a few spots.

With fresh snow in the high country, it’s important to note, avalanche danger is spiking in the mountains. All mountain ranges in Utah carry at least a considerable to high risk of avalanche danger. It’s one of those days to avoid the backcountry and stick to the inbound areas of our ski resorts. You won’t want to travel below steep slopes for quite some time.

Moisture will try to linger into the weekend, but the overall trend looks to be drying out by late Saturday on what will be a chilly weekend with temperatures running slightly below average before we go on a steady warm-up next week as skies look to remain mostly quiet.

With more active weather coming our way stay up to date with the latest both on-air and online with the ABC4, 4Warn Weather Team. We are Good4Utah!

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