Winter Storm Bears Down on Utah

A cold, winter-like storm is expected to hit the Salt Lake City area this afternoon, dropping significant snow in valleys. The storm has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a storm warning, which will remain in effect until 6 pm Tuesday.

KSL's weather service predicts the storm will hit about 2:30 pm today. This is from the KSL report:

The bulls eye for greatest snowfall will be Davis and Salt Lake County (with the bench areas possibly receiving up to or even over 12 inches by Tuesday afternoon. This is a serious winter storm that will disrupt travel through the mountains and cause near blizzard conditions over mountain passes, and finally it will be a morning commute problem for the Wasatch Front on Tuesday. By the middle and end of the week, expect a warm up and a drying trend. We'll actually see temperatures over 60 degrees by Friday!

Read the full KSL report.

We give the text of the national weather service statement below:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT
507 AM MDT MON APR 5 2010

...WINTER STORM TAKES AIM ON UTAH...

.A STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO THE GREAT BASIN TODAY. THE ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT WILL ENTER WESTERN UTAH BY LATE THIS MORNING..THEN SWEEP ACROSS THE STATE BY THIS EVENING. SNOW ACROSS THE HIGHER TERRAIN AHEAD OF THE STORM WILL DECREASE BY MID-MORNING...THEN INCREASE IN AREAL COVERAGE AND INTENSITY THIS AFTERNOON WITH SNOW LEVELS LOWERING TO THE VALLEY FLOORS. LOCALLY HEAVY SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTO TUESDAY BEFORE TAPERING OFF. THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED IN THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL MOUNTAINS...WITH LOCALLY SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS IN THE ADJACENT VALLEYS AND SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS.