Travel Weather

The red "X" marks today's location of the low pressure that will be affecting Utah next week.  Obviously, there appears to be a significant amount of water vapor associated with this system. (the darker the yellow/orange--the more the water.

Here's our travel weather.  As of Friday afternoon, the Salt Lake City NWS Office has this to say about the upcoming week:

DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY
 
 WARM AND DRY CONDITIONS WILL PREVAIL ACROSS THE OUTLOOK AREA THIS
 WEEKEND. A DEVELOPING STORM SYSTEM MOVING SOUTH OUT OF WESTERN CANADA
 WILL STRENGTHEN AS IT ENTERS THE NORTHERN AND WESTERN GREAT BASIN
 MONDAY. MUCH COLDER AIR WILL SPREAD SOUTH ACROSS THE OUTLOOK AREA
 EARLY IN THE WEEK...WITH MOST READINGS DROPPING 10 TO 20 DEGREES
 BELOW THE WEEKEND TEMPERATURES.
 
 ONCE THE STORM SETTLES INTO THE GREAT BASIN IT WILL LIKELY LINGER
 THROUGH AT LEAST WEDNESDAY. THE LONG DURATION OF THIS STORM COULD
 RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS. THE EXACT
 TRACK THIS STORM WILL TAKE THROUGH THE REGION REMAINS IN QUESTION...
 THOUGH BY MIDWEEK MOST MOUNTAIN LOCATIONS WILL HAVE RECEIVED
 ACCUMULATING SNOWS. TEMPERATURES WILL ALSO BE SUFFICIENTLY COLD TO
 BRING SNOW OR A RAIN AND SNOW MIX TO SOME VALLEY LOCATIONS...
 ESPECIALLY ACROSS NORTHERN AND WESTERN UTAH.
 
 THE STORM SYSTEM WILL FINALLY LEAVE THE OUTLOOK AREA WEDNESDAY NIGHT
 OR EARLY THURSDAY. COOL TEMPERATURES WILL PERSIST THROUGH THURSDAY.
 ANY AGRICULTURAL AREAS THAT STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED FREEZING
 TEMPERATURES MAY EXPERIENCE THEIR FIRST HARD FREEZE ON THURSDAY
 MORNING.

The above forecast virtually assures that we will be taking the Nephi-Salina-Kanab route south.

Although the highways themselves "should" be in good shape on the Price-Moab-Kayenta route, the back country Slow Roads we planned to drive will be a sloppy mess.  Better safe than sorry, eh?

The small map shows the basic Fast Lane route south. Here's how it works:  Drive I-15 South to Nephi.   From Nephi proceed south to Salina. Take I-70 West to us Hwy 89 exit.  Proceed through Big Rock Candy Mountain along the Sevier River to Panguitch, Utah.  From Panguitch proceed to Kanab and thence to Jacob Lake, Arizona.  From Jacob Lake go to Vermilion Cliffs.  Then cross Colorado River near Lees Ferry and proceed to Flagstaff.  Get on I-17 and go home to Rimrock.  Driving distance is 800 miles.  Actual driving time is "usually" 16 hours.

We generally camp in the Yuba State Park "Painted Rock" campground on the east side of Yuba reservoir.  Then we generally stay at Susan K's place on Badger Creek Road at Vermilion Cliffs.  Then we generally drive home from there.  Hopefully, this year we will stay a little longer at Susan's Place.

In closing this blog post, we'd like to leave you with both a glimpse of today's jetstream as well as the Northern Hemisphere view of the East and West Pacific Ocean.

Here's today's jetstream.  The part of it in the Pacific Ocean sure looks like "The Big Bird" with its wings spread.  That participle sticking up sure looks like a head!  In any event,that's a major dip in the jetstream.

It looks like that dip in the jet is carrying a lot of water vapor with it as well.  We're guessing those potential storms will hit the Idaho area in 7-10 days. If they hit square on, it could be a heck of a winter storm!

Here's the West Pacific water vapor view.  Looks like there's plenty of upstream water vapor riding over the top of Siberia.  Perhaps a winter weather patterns is coming soon to the Northland, eh?