Second Round

A few interesting cloud features out there this morning, hinting that there's a bit more mixing and turbulence in the atmosphere. Photo below shows some weak Kelvin Helmholtz wave clouds over the south end of the GSL. A cold front moved through over night with an attendant band of precipitation. Most precip fell as rain in the valleys before briefing changing over to snow as precip largely came to an end. Some lingering snow showers remain across areas along the Wasatch Front, mainly up towards Ogden, with some minor grassy accumulations observed there. The Wasatch mountains have picked up a few inches of snow thus far. Nothing super impressive, but more to come later.

Ill formed KH wave clouds over the southern marshes of the GSL 3/5/2026

Second Round

A brief lull or slow down in showers is expected this morning, but a few residual snow showers are likely to hang on in areas. Any accumulations will melt off quickly once precip stops as temps will remain above freezing. The next wave of trailing moisture and energy arrives this afternoon and evening. Valley and mountain snow shower activity will increase during this period, with the mountains potentially benefiting from a northwesterly flow regime. 

GOES-18 East True Color Imagery with 500 mb heights, winds, and vorticity overlaid. Blue arrow represents progression of shortwave.

Satellite imagery reveals the main trough circulation still remains to the north across southern Idaho. The center of this trough/circulation will skirt to the north of Utah across ID, WY, and MT, but a secondary shortwave embedded in the flow will pinch off and continue to progress S-SE over the Wasatch Front later today. The colder pocket of air associated with this shortwave and the accompanying northwesterly flow could produce a period of enhanced orographic snow in the Wasatch, with snow to water ratios of around 15 to 20:1 for the higher elevations as 700 mb temps bottom out around -10 to -11 C. Not super cold but colder than the last few storms for sure. 

Forecasted 700 mb heights, winds, temp (C), and RH for 1500 MST 3/5/2026. Shortwave trough axis and general flow outlined.

The moisture and cooler temps from the northwest could help with snow totals in the mountains, but there's uncertainty on how long winds remain truly northwesterly, which could decrease mountain snow accumulations. In total, another 0.2-0.6" of liquid and 4-10" of snow is possible in the Wasatch mountains. The Wasatch valley areas could see light accumulations on the order of a dusting to 1" Thursday evening into Friday morning as snow showers continue through that period. Otherwise, showers taper off through Friday morning. Conditions dry out late Friday across the mountains as lingering light snow showers are possible through the afternoon. 

Lake Effect Possible

HRRR 15Z 3/5/2026 forecast KSLC sounding for 0400 Z 3/6/2026 (2100 MST 3/5/2026)

Models are trending for winds to shift more northerly and increase sometime Thursday evening into Friday morning. This in combination with continued low to mid-level moisture availability could produces some lake effect or lake enhanced showers to the south of the GSL overnight Thursday. The HRRR forecast KSLC sounding above reveals strengthening northerly winds from the surface to 700 mb along with some lake induce instability (grey curved line) and available low to mid-level moisture (RH on left). If these lake effect showers develop, the Tooele and western SL valleys areas look to be the focus of impacts, with a few inches of snow accumulations possible by Friday morning.