Our largest winter storm of the new season moved through Utah this past weekend. Admittedly, the bar for “largest storm of the season” is not exactly high. Still, Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley both reported 14 inches of new snow on their upper elevations. More importantly, this storm brought the type of dense snow that is perfect for base-building and covering up rocks, logs and other various obstacles.  Thaynes Canyon Snotel site at Park City Mountain jumped from 1.4” of snow water equivalent (SWE) last Thursday to 3” on Sunday. As of this morning, we sit at 60% of the median snowpack for the date. Believe it or not, this is currently ahead of last year’s snowpack at this same time. Despite the improvement in our snowpack numbers, there is no getting around the fact that this year has thus far been subpar from a snowfall standpoint. Due to our lack of snow, both Park City and Deer Valley have less terrain open than I am sure they would like to have by this point in December. Despite the somewhat limited terrain, I was able to have an enjoyable opening day at Deer Valley on Saturday with fresh snow on fast groomers. Unfortunately for Utah’s skiers, snowboarders and snowlovers, a ridge of high pressure has now taken control and will be unrelenting for the rest of this week and likely deep into next week as well. All storm energy is likely to stay north of Utah, mainly bringing heavy rain and high-elevation snow to the Pacific Northwest and far northern Rockies.  Our chances for any accumulating snowfall between now and this same time next week are low. Our model-derived forecast at OpenSnow keeps us completely devoid of snow through at least the middle of next week.  If that wasn’t bad enough news, we will also be exceptionally mild. On average, our temperatures are expected to run 15 to 20 degrees above normal over the next week.  Normally, during dry periods of weather in December, we are able to at least rely on snowmaking operations to get additional terrain open. With these warm temperatures, however, even that is looking difficult. The wet bulb temperature, which is essentially a combination of air temperature and humidity levels, guides snowmakers with regard to whether or not they will be able to make snow. As you can see below, the next 10 days have limited opportunity for snowmaking, with only a few windows of marginally favorable conditions at night.  There is no sugarcoating it for the Park City area, as well as Utah on the whole: Our upcoming forecast has little in the way of good news. At this point, the only hope I can offer is that a few of the long-range models hint at a pattern shift just before Christmas.  I am trying to stay positive, but in times like this, it is always a question of what breaks down first, the ridge of high pressure or my mental health. Let us hope it is the former.  For up-to-date forecasts, you can subscribe to Evan’s Utah Daily Snow forecast on OpenSnow.com and the OpenSnow app.  The post The Outlook: Low snow, but more than last year at this time appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less