Late-Season Storms Are Coming to the Sierra and Utah Mountains

The western mountains are finally getting a return to winter, with storm systems lining up for both the Sierra Nevada and Utah’s mountains in early April.

At Mammoth Mountain, the local Mammoth Snowman forecast is calling for snow showers Tuesday and Wednesday with several inches of fresh snow possible — a welcome shift after nearly two weeks of a snow line sitting as high as 8,200 to 8,500 feet and melt-off that the forecaster described as unlike anything he’d seen in March.

Mammoth is currently running a 76-inch base and remains open through at least Memorial Day, making it the clear choice in the Sierra for anyone still chasing turns. The northern Sierra is a different story — Tahoe has been getting hammered by warm temperatures all season, and KQED reports the northern part of the range is sitting at just 38% of normal snowpack versus 82% for the southern Sierra.

In Utah, a more significant pattern shift is building. The Ski Utah snow report flagged this weekend that “unseasonably warm weather will finally come to an end” as a series of cold storm systems moves through, with accumulating mountain snowfall and temperatures dropping sharply from weekend highs in the 70s into the 30s by mid-week.

Early forecasts from Teton Gravity Research are pointing toward 10–20 inches in higher terrain starting around April 2. For SoCal skiers looking for the closest Utah option, Brian Head is worth keeping an eye on — the southern Utah resort currently has a 24-inch base with all 8 lifts open and sits at Utah’s highest base elevation, giving it a better shot at cold temperatures when these systems roll through.

It’s a late reprieve for a season that was genuinely rough. Winter 2025–26 was the warmest on record for Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, with Utah hitting its second-lowest snowpack on record at 65% of median and Colorado setting an outright record low at 63%.

The Sierra ran similarly grim at the top of the range, though a massive February storm dumped over 100 inches in five days at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab before being rapidly erased by warm temperatures. The incoming storms won’t rewrite the season, but for anyone with a pass still burning a hole in their pocket, the timing is about as good as it’s been since February.