A winter storm brought heavy snow and slick roads to much of Northern Utah, causing several accidents. The snow was also blamed for a fatality, as a driver lost control of his vehicle on the snowy roads between Grantsville and Wendover, rolling it into the medium.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS SLC wrote it up.
A winter storm brought heavy snow and slick roads to much of Northern Utah, causing several accidents. The snow was also blamed for a fatality, as a driver lost control of his vehicle on the snowy roads between Grantsville and Wendover, rolling it into the medium. Some snow totals for this storm were 16 inches at Snowbird and Solitude, 14 inches at Alta, 12 inches at Sundance, 8 inches in Centerville, Bountiful and East Layton, 6 inches in South Ogden and the SLC Avenues, and 4 inches in Clearfield, Alpine, Heber City, Morgan and Laketown.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Salt Lake City, UT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 20, 3:04 PM MST, 4 hours 56 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 304 PM MST SAT DEC 20 2003 .SYNOPSIS...THE NEXT STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE OVER THE AREA LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY. HIGH PRESSURE WILL RETURN FOR EARLY NEXT WEEK. ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM MAY AFFECT THE AREA BEGINNING CHRISTMAS DAY. && .DISCUSSION...SHORTWAVE RIDGE OVER THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON AHEAD OF SYSTEM MOVING ONSHORE OVER CALIFORNIA. SYSTEM CONTINUES TO TRACK DUE EAST AND SHOULD MOVE ACROSS SOUTHERN UTAH SUNDAY. FASTER JET IS ON THE EAST-SOUTHEAST SIDE OF THE LOW...ALLOWING THE LOW TO CONTINUE MOVING EAST. MODELS CONTINUE TO GENERATE ONE HALF TO THREE QUARTERS OF AN INCH OF QPF INCLUDING A BAND OF HEAVIER PRECIP EAST TO WEST OVER NORTHERN UTAH ASSOCIATED WITH DIVERGENCE AND DEFORMATION NORTH OF THE CUT-OFF. ISSUING A SNOW ADVISORY FOR ALL OF THE MOUNTAIN ZONES EXCEPT SE IDAHO. MOST VALLEY AREAS WILL LIKELY SEE A RAIN SNOW MIX WITH LITTLE ACCUMULATION. LOW PULLS AWAY SUNDAY NIGHT WITH A RIDGE ALOFT BUILDING AND VALLEY INVERSIONS STRENGTHENING AGAIN MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY. THEN ALL MODELS ARE SHOWING SOME SORT OF COMPLEX TROUGH MOVING ACROSS THE WEST THURSDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND. BUMPED THE POPS UP TO CHANCE CATEGORY MANY AREAS STARTING CHRISTMAS EVE. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...SNOW ADVISORY ALL MOUNTAIN ZONES LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY. ID...NONE. WY...NONE. && GIBSON
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 300 PM MST SAT DEC 20 2003 UTZ007>010-017-018-211400- CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST MOUNTAINS-HENRY MOUNTAINS-WASATCH MOUNTAINS I- 80 NORTH-WASATCH MOUNTAINS SOUTH OF I-80-WASATCH PLATEAU/BOOK CLIFFS- WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS- 300 PM MST SAT DEC 20 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF THE WESTERN TWO-THIRDS OF UTAH. .DAY ONE... TODAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY SNOW IS EXPECTED IN THE MOUNTAINS OF UTAH BEGINNING LATE TONIGHT CONTINUING AT TIMES THROUGH SUNDAY. SNOW WILL BE ENDING SUNDAY EVENING. SEE THE LATEST WINTER WEATHER STATEMENT...SLCWSWSLC... FOR DETAILS. SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE IN THE MOUNTAINS AGAIN CHRISTMAS DAY AND FRIDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES. IDZ024-025-UTZ001>006-011>016-019>021-WYZ021-211400- CACHE VALLEY/IDAHO PORTION-CACHE VALLEY/UTAH PORTION-CASTLE COUNTRY- GLEN CANYON RECREATION AREA/LAKE POWELL- GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT AND MOUNTAINS-NORTHERN WASATCH FRONT- SALT LAKE AND TOOELE VALLEYS-SAN RAFAEL SWELL-SANPETE/SEVIER VALLEYS- SOUTH CENTRAL UTAH-SOUTHERN WASATCH FRONT-SOUTHWEST UTAH- SOUTHWEST WYOMING-UTAHS DIXIE AND ZION NATIONAL PARK- WASATCH MOUNTAIN VALLEYS-WASATCH MOUNTAINS/IDAHO PORTION- WEST CENTRAL UTAH-WESTERN UINTA BASIN- 300 PM MST SAT DEC 20 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WESTERN TWO-THIRDS OF UTAH...EXTREME SOUTHEAST IDAHO AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST WYOMING .DAY ONE... TODAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE OVER MUCH OF THE WESTERN TWO-THIRDS OF UTAH...EXTREME SOUTHEAST IDAHO AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST WYOMING STARTING CHRISTMAS DAY AND CONTINUING ON FRIDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.
5 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow, Salt Lake and Toole Valleys | 2003-12-21 | 37 | Male | Vehicle/Towed Trailer | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Utah in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Utah, December 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5327455, 5327456, 5327457, 5327458, 5327459.