Hello, this is Casey Olsen with Utah Climate Center.
As someone who enjoys both cross country skiing and running, I feel incredibly conflicted about the beginning of December's weather so far. On the one hand, my mind has been blown being able to run in the mornings with shorts and a T shirt in December. On the other, I would love to be able to get the skis out before Christmas, in time for our holiday break. Let's hope that the bad luck of this being the ninth-latest first snowfall, at least up here in Cache Valley, doesn't carry over into the rest of the season.
Unfortunately, I don't have good news on that front, at least in the short term. The jet stream remains well to our north, indicative of high amplitude, high pressure ridging. This is why we have been almost 20 degrees above normal for this time of the year.
Given the fact that we're expecting light winds and very little mixing with the valley floors, inversions are likely to build and reduce our air quality over the next few days.
Conditions will remain quiet and boring into next work week as well. A very minor disturbance looks to cross across the state Monday, likely doing little other than kicking up a few clouds and reducing our temperatures very slightly.
We may see some activity in the latter half of next week, but the cooler air masses over Canada aren't looking to creep down far enough with this moisture to bring low elevation snow, at least initially.
By next weekend, it may look like the pattern will shift. Temperatures will remain in the mid and upper 50s for valleys along the Wasatch range, while the southern low elevations will remain in the mid 60s heading into the weekend.
With Utah Climate Center, I'm Casey Olsen.