- The New Year's storm delivered significant snow to ski resorts like Alta and Brighton.
- An atmospheric river will bring strong rain and snow to Utah this weekend and into early next week.
- Preliminary models suggest the potential for valley snow with more storms forecast next week.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's 2026 water year opened with a bang, with Utah's capital city nearly breaking its all-time single-day precipitation record a few days into the new season.
The same went for the start of the calendar. The New Year's storm proved to be quite productive for many of Utah's ski resorts, delivering over a foot of snow at Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude resorts in the Cottonwood canyons, while many other resorts scattered across northern Utah reported over a half-foot of new snow.
Many cities also received strong precipitation totals that lingered into Friday, and there's more on the way. The state's snowpack rose a bit, from 57% of normal at the start of Thursday to 64% by Saturday.
And there's more to come. The National Weather Service on Saturday issued a winter weather advisory for parts of Utah's mountains, which could receive another foot or two of snow between late Saturday and Monday.
"We still have a ways to go, but the good news is we have a stormy weather pattern that will give us several days in a row to get more mountain snow going," said KSL meteorologist Kristen Van Dyke.
A stormy week ahead
A high-pressure system briefly set over the Utah-Nevada border on Friday, but it will be quickly pushed out by an atmospheric river moving its way across the Pacific Coast. The system will produce widespread showers across the West on Saturday, before arriving in Utah Saturday night, Van Dyke said.
It will produce rain in the valleys and snow in the mountains that continues in waves on Sunday and Monday. It's expected to clear out by Tuesday, but another system could impact Utah on Wednesday and Thursday.
Van Dyke points out that there's still plenty of uncertainty about how the latter system will impact Utah based on different scenarios, but early models suggest that it could be cold enough to produce valley snow.
Potential accumulations
It's still too early to know how that will translate into storm totals, but the start looks promising.
Another 8 to 18 inches of snow is expected to fall in areas above 7,500 feet elevation in the Wasatch and West Uinta mountains by the end of Monday, according to the winter weather advisory. It adds that some places above 8,500 feet elevation could end up with closer to 2 feet of snow during that time.
"Travel could be difficult at times, especially Sunday afternoon through Monday," the weather service wrote, adding that traction law restrictions could be enacted on some routes.
Lower totals are expected in Utah's central and southern mountains, which could end up with 2 to 6 inches. The Wasatch Back could also receive higher snow totals. One weather service model lists Park City as having about a 50% chance of receiving 6 inches of snow by early Tuesday.
The model also notes there's some chance for valley snow in the first round of action, but it's low, and there likely won't be much accumulation if there is any. That's because high temperatures will remain in the upper 40s and low 50s across the Wasatch Front and northern Utah this weekend, with overnight lows likely hovering above the freezing point in most areas.
However, the storm has the potential to produce another 0.5 to 1.1 inches of rain across the Wasatch Front and northern Utah by Monday evening, per the weather service. Lower totals, likely closer to 0.1 to 0.3 inches, are forecast for central and southern Utah communities, like Beaver, Cedar City, Fillmore and St. George.
Those totals could change as the storm nears, and they don't account for precipitation later in the week. Full seven-day forecasts for areas across Utah can be found online, at the KSL Weather Center.
