I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and begun adjusting to real life again. Let's go ahead and talk about our absolute bonkers of a December with a 60 degree Christmas Eve up here in Cache Valley.
Looking at some of the historical climate stations around the northern part of the state, I was blown away to see our daily highs for the month, about 10 to 15 degrees above normal. Unsurprisingly, for those who spent their holidays here, precip was also very disappointing to say the least, with little snowfall and mostly rain even up in the mid elevations.
In terms of snow pack, Alpine skiers will know that we've begun to catch up at the high elevations with these nickel and dime winter events. Most peaks are still below normal for this time of year, though, the spatial pattern is interesting, with some variability due to the orientation of the mountains being favored over others. It's a marathon, not a sprint, so we still have time to catch up.
Our mid week system will be wrapping up this evening, with our winds shifting to northerly. We may squeeze out a bit more water over the ranges, but overall, weather should be quieting down over the next week.
Responsible for this low in the weather is a large high pressure ridge. The stagnant nature of this air mass brings inversion concerns, so look out for air quality impacts over the coming days.
Temperatures in the northern valleys will remain in the mid to upper 30s heading into next week. Southern Utah will begin to climb back up from the 40s up to the low 50s.