Name: Dense Fog in Utah, January 10 to 11, 2003
Start: 2003-01-10T21:00
End: 2003-01-11T09:00
Location: Utah

The toll

Deaths: 2
Injuries: 1
Property damage: $200,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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.

What forecasters said that day

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 Jan 10, 4:30 PM MST, 4 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 10, 4:30 PM MST, 4 hours 30 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jan 10, 5:00 AM MST, 16 hours before

IDZ024-025-UTZ001>021-WYZ021-102300-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT
500 AM MST FRI JAN 10 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR 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... SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

WCJIN-WYSW

Event by event

1 dense fog. Local standard time, as filed.

Dense Fog, Salt Lake and Toole Valleys

When: January 10, 9:00 PM MST to January 11, 9:00 AM MST
Where: Salt Lake and Toole Valleys forecast zone
Deaths: 2 direct, 0 indirect
Injuries: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $200,000
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER

A Life Flight helicopter crashed in thick fog that shrouded much of the Wasatch Front on the evening of the 10th. The crash occurred just southwest of the Salt Lake City International Airport, killing the pilot, a paramedic, and seriously injuring a flight nurse.

The people who died

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
Dense Fog, Salt Lake and Toole Valleys	2003-01-10	47	Male	Other	Direct
Dense Fog, Salt Lake and Toole Valleys	2003-01-10	38	Male	Other	Direct

What these are

Dense Fog: Fog reducing visibility to a quarter mile or less, filed where it caused accidents or disruption.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Utah in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history Warnings in Utah, January 2003

Sources

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: 5327877.