Winter storm moving in late Wednesday through Friday

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Happy Wednesday, Utah! It’s been a mostly cloudy day across southern Utah with a closed low moving to the south of us.

Across the north, we have been enjoying a mainly sunny sky and warm temperatures. Clouds will be on the increase by the evening hours. Highs will warm into the upper 50s to mid-60s across the state.

Clouds will thicken statewide as our next weather maker approaches from the west. Winds have already become quite gusty out of the southwest, leading to some wind gusts in the 40-50 mph range in the west Desert and Toole and Rush Valley.

Elsewhere, winds will likely gust between 20-40 mph. A Wind Advisory is in effect now through Thursday evening. A few showers could possibly develop over southwest Utah later Wednesday afternoon, but we should remain dry along the Wasatch Front.

The trough moves through the Beehive state on Thursday, bringing scattered valley rain showers and scattered mountain snow to begin with Thursday morning, but precipitation coverage and intensity should ramp up even more during the midday and early afternoon hours.

Valley rain and mountain snow will be the dominate theme, but temperatures and snow levels will be dropping in this trough, which means by Thursday evening into Thursday night valley rain will change over to snow with some possible quick valley accumulations between 1″-3″ possible.

The mountains look to get another juicy system, with more snow totals of around 6-12″ for the northern mountains, 12-24″ for central and southern mountains, and potentially 20-30″ totals for parts of the Upper Cottonwoods. Mountain valleys should average around 4-8″, with 2-5″ likely for the benches.

Looks like the snow will wrap up fairly quickly Thursday night, but a few lake effect bands could develop across parts of the northern Wasatch Front early Friday morning. Beyond that, most of Friday afternoon will be dry over the region.

The pattern stays active into the weekend with another chance for snow on Saturday across northern Utah, with a colder temperature trend, we could see a few more inches of snow during this time. Yet another state-wide storm remains possible for the beginning of next week.

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