Snow turns to valley rain and mountain snow this evening into Friday

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Thursday, Utah! After a frigid start, Our first round of snow is moving through most of Utah, with a rain/snow mix for St. George.

Snow accumulations have already occurred across both the valleys and mountains and will continue through Thursday afternoon.

Temperatures will begin to warm and snow levels will rise from around 4,000 ft to around 5,500 ft. by Thursday night into Friday morning, which means below the upper benches will transition over to a cold rain, or a rain-snow mix. Areas from the upper benches through the mountains will remain all snow on Thursday, leading to significant snow accumulations for those areas.

As colder air returns and snow levels drop once again, another period of snow may return to the valley floors Friday night into Saturday morning leading to more light accumulations.

The precipitation should taper off during the day on Saturday, with more wintry weather possible Sunday into Monday.

Winter Storm Warnings are still in effect for all of our mountains (north, central, and southern) from Thursday evening through Saturday. The northern and central mountains, Western Uintas, Wasatch Plateau/Book Cliffs, and Wasatch Back are under the Warning from Thursday morning through Saturday afternoon. The Southern Mountains and Bryce Canyon County’s Winter Storm Warning ends a day earlier on Friday evening. The Wasatch Front and Salt Lake Valley are under Winter Weather Advisories through Thursday evening.

Mountain snow totals will be healthy with this storm system. The Northern Mountains could get 1-2′ feet with up to 3 feet possible for the Upper Cottonwoods; the Central Mountains will see about 8-14 inches; and the Southern Mountains could get a much-needed 10-20+ inches.

Mountain valleys will also have a good chance for decent snow accumulation with 4-8 inches in the forecast, and 8-14 inches of snow for the Wasatch Back. For the valley floors, a dusting of 2 inches will be possible, but some of that may get washed away later Thursday evening with the rain. The benches will see more with 3-6 inches expected.

The active wave train of storms will continue across northern Utah next week, but things dry out for southern Utah.

Stay tuned!

We’ll keep you posted on the latest developments in our 4Warn Weather forecast both on-air and online, we are Good4Utah!

• Frigid temperatures in place
• Winter Storm Tonight-Saturday
• Winter Storm Warnings for ALL mountains
• 1-3′ feet of snow for the mountains
• Valley Snow then rain/snow mix at times
• More active weather next week