1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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 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 Jul 19, 3:10 PM MST, 1 hour 20 minutes earlier.
UTAH AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 410 PM MDT SAT JUL 19 2003 .SYNOPSIS...A VERY WARM AND MOIST AIRMASS WILL REMAIN OVER UTAH THROUGH THE WEEKEND. .DISCUSSION...HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT MAINLY CENTERED OVER THE FOUR CORNERS THIS AFTERNOON WITH A WEAK AXIS EXTENDING NORTHWEST THROUGH NORTHERN UTAH. HIGH TERRAIN CONVECTION FIRING AROUND THE HIGH AND OVER THE HIGH TERRAIN OF THE FORECAST AREA. INVERTED TROUGH MADE ITS WAY THROUGH ARIZONA AND INTO SOUTHERN NEVADA THIS MORNING AND AFTERNOON APPEARS TO HAVE SPREAD ENOUGH SUBSIDENCE IN ITS WAKE ACROSS SOUTHERN AND SOUTHWESTERN UTAH TO HOLD THINGS DOWN MORE THAN EARLIER THOUGHT. UPPER LEVEL WINDS IN 20-25 KT RANGE WHICH HAS PREVENTED ANY STATIONARY CELL MOVEMENT. MID-LEVEL CAP HAS KEPT THINGS DOWN AS WELL. PLENTY OF MOISTURE AROUND WITH PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES UP TO AN INCH IN MANY AREAS AND NOT MUCH LESS ELSEWHERE. WITH THAT IN MIND CURRENT ACTIVITY WILL CONTINUE INTO THE EVENING AND COULD VERY WELL SPREAD INTO THE VALLEY AREAS LATER THIS AFTERNOON EARLY THIS EVENING. QUITE A BIT OF SUN AROUND THE AREA SO NOT CONFIDENT AT EVEN CHANCE POPS IN VALLEY AREAS. HARD TO IGNORE SO MUCH MOISTURE HOWEVER SO LEFT SOME CHANCES THIS EVENING AND SLIGHTLY LESS AFTER MIDNIGHT MAINLY OVER HIGHER TERRAIN. OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES WILL DO THEIR TYPICAL DANCE THIS EVENING...ALTHOUGH NOT QUITE AS MANY AS PREVIOUS NIGHTS GIVEN MOIST AIRMASS. HIGH GRADUALLY SHIFTS WEST INTO TOMORROW...PULLING SOME SLIGHTLY DRIER AIR IN OVER THE SOUTHWEST AND CURRENTLY OVER NEW MEXICO AND PUTTING A LOT OF THE AREA IN A WEAK NORTHERLY FLOW. THAT WILL KEEP POPS LESS THAN TODAY OVER THE SOUTHWEST...BUT PWS STILL UP NEAR .75 INCH WHICH IS PLENTY JUICE TO GET THINGS GOING. BETTER MOISTURE CONFINED TO NORTHERN HALF...WHICH COMBINED WITH WEAK UPPER PV ANOMALY MOVING UP THROUGH NEVADA AND BRUSHING WESTERN UTAH WILL INCREASE TRW CHANGES IN THE NORTH AND NORTHWEST. HIGH SETTLES IN OVER THE UTAH-NEVADA BORDER BY MONDAY WHILE STAYING PLENTY MOIST FOR AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING CONVECTION MAINLY OVER HIGHER TERRAIN THROUGH MOST OF NEXT WEEK. GFS WARMS 700 MB UP TO OVER 20C ACROSS A BROAD PART OF THE FORECAST AREA TUES-WEDNESDAY SO EXPECT MORE HOT TEMPERATURES...AROUND 100 IN THE SLC AREA AND 110 OVER THE SOUTHWEST. WEAK NORTHWEST COOL SURGE MOVES THROUGH AFTER MIDWEEK AS THE HIGH FLATTENS UNDER A WAVE MOVING ACROSS SOUTHERN CANADA THIS WILL COOL THE NORTH DOWN 5 OR SO DEGREES INTO FRIDAY PRIOR TO WARMING UP AGAIN NEXT WEEKEND IN A REBUILDING HIGH OVER THE WEST. SLC 2331 CDC 3221 JACKSON .SLC...NONE
IDZ024-025-UTZ001>021-WYZ021-201300- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 400 AM MDT SAT JUL 19 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE WESTERN TWO-THIRDS OF UTAH...EXTREME SOUTHEAST IDAHO AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST WYOMING .DAY ONE... TODAY A FLASH FLOOD WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR WASHINGTON AND KANE COUNTIES OF EXTREME SOUTHERN UTAH FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. A VERY MOIST AIRMASS HAS MOVED INTO SOUTHWEST UTAH. THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING IN THIS ENVIRONMENT MAY PRODUCE VERY HEAVY RAINFALL. THE SLICKROCK DESERTS AND CANYONS OF SOUTHWEST UTAH MAY EXPERIENCE FLASH FLOODING THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. ALSO...RECENTLY BURNED AREAS SUCH AS THE APEX FIRE NEAR SAINT GEORGE ARE PRONE TO DEBRIS AND MUD FLOWS IF HEAVY RAIN DEVELOPS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE. WCJIN-WYSW
The Salt Lake City radar (KMTX), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:30 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A mother and father were killed and their 3 children injured after being hit by lightning near Crystal Lake in the Uinta Mountains. The family had taken shelter from the thunderstorm under a tree when the lightning struck the tree.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning, Summit | 2003-07-19 | 34 | Male | Under Tree | Direct |
| Lightning, Summit | 2003-07-19 | 34 | Female | Under Tree | 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, July 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: 5380325.