Major Trough Moves East of Star Valley

The cold trough of low pressure that  dominates the western states mid-day Thursday

500 mb Analysis Noon Thursday 3/1/12

shifts east into the central states by late Friday

500 mb forecast midnight Friday 3/2/12

This will finally lead to an ending of virtually weeks of at least some daily snow for Star Valley.  By Sunday, the high pressure ridge will have moved far enough east to essentially end the chances of snow.  Thursday, March 1st was the 23rd consecutive day of at least a trace of snow being observed at Star Valley Ranch.  In that period of time, a total of 45 inches of snow fell, with a current snow cover of around 40 inches.

The strong cold front that passed across the valley Wednesday afternoon resulted in briefly near zero visibilities as a quick two inches of snow fell,  along with strong winds. The web cam, located about 6 miles south of Alpine, provided a rather spectacular view of the snow front's passage.  Here is a short video from that site.

With the cold trough shifting east into the Central States the snow fall in our area will diminish and likely end by later Saturday.  However it will lead to a potentially  serious Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Outbreak in parts of the Mississippi/Ohio and Tennessee Valleys by Friday afternoon per the latest forecast from the Storm Prediction Center.

All of the ingredients are expected to be available for developing supercell thunderstorms, which could then produce damaging tornadoes.  Those interested in following this threat can refer to the Storm Prediction Centers web site  spc.noaa.gov