Winter's last stand? Snow, freeze warnings return to Utah's forecast

SALT LAKE CITY — Winter barely showed up in Utah this year, but it's still seeking to cling to the Beehive State just a bit longer.

A fast-moving, late-season winter storm will move into the state on Thursday, bringing rain and snow. It could bring snow to the Wasatch Front and northern Utah valleys as a cold front passes by in the afternoon, before sweeping into the south-central region by the end of the day and fizzling out, said KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson.

"We'll see rain quickly switch over to snow. ... It could bring a little bit of snow during the evening commute," he said, adding that he doesn't expect it to produce much snow because of the system's speed and moisture content. Warm ground temperatures will likely prevent it from sticking to valley floors, too.

Some additional lake-effect snow is possible between southern Davis and northern Salt Lake counties Friday morning, he added, which could create a slick commute to end the workweek.

Valleys will likely receive a trace to an inch of snow by Friday morning, with an inch or two in bench areas, Johnson said. National Weather Service models suggest higher totals are possible if the right conditions align.

Mountain areas across Utah's northern half are projected to receive 5 to 10 inches between Thursday and Friday, though higher totals are possible in the upper Cottonwood canyons.

Overall, the storm has the potential to deliver 0.1 to 0.5 inches across northern, south-central, and northeastern Utah, though shadowing could lead to lower amounts in parts of that range. Lower totals are anticipated outside of that zone.

The National Weather Service also issued freeze warnings for communities across the state, from Logan to Cedar City, where freezing overnight temperatures are likely between Thursday and Friday nights into the ensuing mornings.

Warmer, drier conditions will return by the end of the weekend. Full seven-day forecasts for areas across Utah can be found online at the KSL Weather Center.

Why recent storms matter

The timing of the cold storm is normal. Salt Lake City's average last snowfall of the season falls on April 16, and it's even collected snow as late as June 6, but it's a rare wintry blast this season.

Utah's capital city has collected only 3 inches of snow this season from just a handful of snow-producing storms, the lowest total since the National Weather Service began tracking data in 1874, by a wide margin.

Its current record is 14.3 inches, set in 1934, but this year has already broken many of the remaining records from 1934 and 2015 — the most comparable years to the 2026 water year thus far. Utah's statewide snowpack on April 1 was the lowest since those years, while its average temperature between October and March — the first half of the water year — was 3 degrees above either of those years.

The incoming storm follows one that swept through Utah's southern half at the start of the week, producing over half an inch of precipitation across many communities, including 0.82 inches in New Harmony, Washington County. A system before that targeted northern Utah, delivering equally strong totals.

They've hardly impacted the state's record-low snowpack and likely won't lift Salt Lake City out of its snow drought, but they still have benefits, Johnson says. It's slowed snowmelt and kept soils wet, delaying the start of more widespread fire concerns and slowing the expansion of drought after March's heat wave left most of the state in extreme drought or worse.

Long-range forecasts now suggest more storms could pepper the state at times during April's second half, adding to this benefit.

"That's exactly what we want," Johnson said. "If we melt it all off at once, we'd dry out our vegetation earlier. ... If what happened in March panned out this April, we'd have fires already going now."

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