- Multiple Utah resorts received over 5 feet of snow, improving the state's snowpack.
- Record-high temperatures led to poor snow cover before this week.
- High-pressure system forecast may limit snowpack collection, along with worsening air quality.
SALT LAKE CITY — A few of Utah's resorts have already received over 5 feet of new snow since the year began, while Utah made big strides in its snow collection season.
Alta, Snowbird and Brighton resorts in the Cottonwood canyons all have received more than 5 feet of snow since New Year's Day, while Solitude Mountain Resort ended up just shy of that, as of Friday morning. Many other resorts have also collected over 2 feet of snow in a little more than the first week of 2026.
"It's going to be a busy weekend (with) all this fresh snow," said KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson.
Other mountain areas where snow is tracked also benefited, helping Utah's statewide snowpack jump from 57% of its median average to 76% for this point in the season. It's an improvement from an odd start that the state had experienced in its unofficial first half.
The only downside is that the forecast is not Utah's friend — at least for the next week.
A 'strange' snowpack start
This year has gotten off to a "very strange start" when it comes to snowpack, said Jordan Clayton, a hydrologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and supervisor of the Utah Snow Survey, in a statewide snowpack update on Friday. That's because there's been record-breaking warm conditions statewide, leading to "poor" snow cover.
A report on statewide conditions is expected to be released next week, but record-high or well-above-normal temperatures were recorded across the state last month, from Logan to St. George and Salt Lake City in the valleys up to Alta in the mountains, per preliminary National Weather Service data.
It followed an equally mild November, which ended up the state's warmest November in at least 130 years. Warmer storms produced higher snow levels, leading to very little valley snow, as well as "an unusual amount of liquid precipitation being received at mid and high elevations in Utah's mountains," Clayton noted.
"Our snowpack is shallow and dense at most locations around the state, and absent in others," he said.
Record-low conditions were reported at nearly two dozen of the Conservation Service's snowpack collection sites by New Year's Day, while a handful of basins also ended the calendar year with the lowest levels since at least the 1980s. Many other sites and basins were near record-low levels.
Snowpack accounts for about 95% of the state's water supply.
Clayton points out that the many lower-elevation snowpack areas still collected precipitation, which has helped keep soil moisture levels. The statewide average remains near the record high this week, which bodes well for snowmelt efficiency in the spring, even as over 90% of the state remains in drought.
Conditions have also "marginally improved" with this week's stormy pattern, with the Bear River basin benefiting the most so far, he adds. It jumped from 83% of its median to 106% over the past week. Duchesne (94%) and Northeast Uintahs (88%) are above 80%, but many other basins remain below 70%.
That includes the Provo-Utah Lake-Jordan basin at 69%, but that's much better than the 49% last week. Totals remain below 50% in the Tooele Valley-Vernon Creek and Lower Sevier basins. Many others, especially in southern and central Utah, are not far above 50%.
Inversion to return with incoming slowdown
The bad news is that a high-pressure system is setting up over the West, as the latest wave of storms heads east. It's forecast to "deeply root itself" over the region, possibly over the next week or two, Johnson said.
That'll likely keep things dry, keeping the state below normal in terms of snowpack collection. It's also expected to help set up the next inversion, leading to haze buildup to begin this weekend. The current seven-day forecast calls for temperatures to only top out in the low 40s with that haze building up.
"Expect the air quality to really start to deteriorate," he said.
Temperatures near St. George will climb back into the mid-50s by next week because of the high pressure, too. Full seven-day forecasts for areas across Utah can be found online, at the KSL Weather Center.
