Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Salt Lake City, UT
Issued by NWS Salt Lake City, UT
047 FXUS65 KSLC 261052 AFDSLC Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT 352 AM MST Wed Nov 26 2025 .SYNOPSIS...Dry and mild conditions are expected to continue through at least Thursday with the pattern breaking down thereafter. A trough will pass through at least a portion of Utah and southwest Wyoming by the weekend, bringing cooler temperatures and a potential shot of precipitation. Thereafter, an active storm track looks to remain in place through the middle of the week. && .DISCUSSION...Upper level moisture spreading across the CWA on the eastern periphery of a building ridge has brought a notable veil of high level cloud cover across the CWA this morning, helping to limit the amount of cooling seen on an already cold morning across much of the CWA. Thin high level cloud cover will remain in place through the day today as this upper level moisture remains in place, primarily across the northern half of Utah and southwest Wyoming. Through at least Thursday, dry and mild conditions will remain in place across the CWA as a ridge of high pressure establishes over the western U.S. Overhead temperatures will gradually rise through Thursday, with highs already creeping above average for much of the area today. By Thursday, expect high temperatures up to 10-15 degrees above average for this time of year. Additional warming is anticipated across southwest Utah on Friday before the next area-wide cooldown commences as a broad trough sweeps through the region. Although there is still generally low confidence in the evolution of our next potential weekend storm system, the past 24 hours has shown been a significant shift in model consensus. Specifically, more ensemble members (around 80%) are shifting toward an open wave trough which would favor a more progressive storm track over Utah and southwest Wyoming. That said, there are still around 20% of ensemble members that maintain a cutoff low solution. As a more progressive storm track has become favored, precipitation potential has gone down significantly. Previously, 10th to 90th percentile forecasts for the mountainous terrain ranged from 0 to 1.5 inches of SWE. That same range has now dropped to 0 to 0.75 inches. For valley areas, precipitation totals through Monday morning range from 0 to 0.4 inches in the west and 0 to around 0.25 for the eastern valleys. Snowfall for valleys is still very much on the table, but whether or not we achieve temperatures cold enough to produce valley snowfall depends on the overall depth of the trough. Only around 30% of total guidance is supportive of deep enough trough to do such. It is likely that within that 30% of guidance, there is more uncertainty with moisture availability as valley snowfall is not supported until the 90th percentile of NBM output. Even if this weekend storm becomes a bust, there is still model agreement that the pattern will remain somewhat active through the middle of next week. So long as an upstream ridge in the Gulf of Alaska remains in place, cold air will be displaced from western Canada. As such, ensemble guidance does support another midweek trough... though details are just as uncertain as the initial trough. && .AVIATION...KSLC...Light southeast winds will transition to northwest around 19Z. Scattered to broken clouds through then will decrease, with few or scattered clouds after 19Z. Light northwest winds will transition southeast around 03Z. .REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING...Light winds will prevail for most places, with west to northwest winds gusting around 25 knots in southwest Wyoming and far northeast Utah from 18-00Z. Clouds will generally decrease from broken to scattered through 19Z, with few to scattered clouds after 19Z. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...None. WY...None. && $$ PUBLIC...Webber AVIATION...Wilson For more information from NOAA`s National Weather Service visit... http://weather.gov/saltlakecity