Nowcast - Clear skies overhead aid with overnight cooling, as pre-dawn temperatures hover right around freezing, with a couple quirky low elevation outliers registering in the mid 20's °F. Winds blowing from the south and southeast bumped into the mid 20 mph range near the high peaks overnight and continue in that spirit this morning.

Forecast - Storminess churns in the southern half of the state, while we remain in a warm, dry sector with partly cloudy skies and high temperatures climbing into the mid 40's °F. Winds blowing from the south bump into the 30's as the day progresses.

Futurecast - The stubborn ridge of high pressure that's been homesteading over northern Utah and overstayed its welcome is packing its bags and shifting east. A legit pattern change is in the queue and we should see the first in a series of impulses bump into the region late Monday or Tuesday. Nothing to get too excited about at first glance, but it starts the conversation for additional storms to slide into northern Utah during the second half of the workweek.

Travel Conditions -

Conditions at the Bear River Trailhead look rather underwhelming at first glance, but gain some elevation and you'll see the Uinta's are performing closer to average this season than meets the eye. Snow depths vary from 1-3' across the range above 9,000' with a mostly right-side up snowpack. In general, protected polars continue to weaken but are riding well thanks to our Christmas Eve rain crust keeping us off the ground. Higher isn't necessarily better, as alpine terrain above treeline has been getting torched by recent winds.

Avy savvy, snowpros, and all around remarkable people, Dave and Johanna Kelly took their steel horses for a ride in the Soapstone zone Wednesday and report a fine day of riding in brilliant sunshine.