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 Oct 1, 2:40 PM MST, 1 hour 50 minutes earlier.
UTAH AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 340 PM MDT WED OCT 1 2003 .SYNOPSIS...AN UPPER LEVEL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL DEVELOP OVER NORTHEAST CALIFORNIA TONIGHT AND MOVE INTO EXTREME SOUTHWEST UTAH ON FRIDAY. && .DISCUSSION...SOUTHERN END OF ELONGATED TROUGH ALONG WEST COAST IS NOW IN THE PROCESS OF FORMING A CLOSED LOW OVER NE CA. SHORT WAVES ARE EJECTING FROM THIS NEGATIVELY TILTED TROUGH AS THIS TAKES PLACE WITH JET EXIT REGION OVER UT. THE DYANMIC LIFT IS COMBINING WITH AN UNSTABLE AIRMASS TO PRODUCE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE NORTHERN 2/3RDS OF THE FORECAST AREA TODAY AND THIS SHOULD INCREASE LATER TONIGHT AND THURSDAY...ESPECIALLY OVER THE NORTH AS THE LOW GETS CLOSER. BY MID DAY FRIDAY THE CLOSED CIRCULATION AT 500 MB IS OVER EXTREME SW UT IN THE 12Z AVN...6 HOURS SOONER IN THE 18Z ETA WHICH SHIFTS THE MAIN THREAT OF PRECIP TO THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA LATE THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY. BOTH AVN/ETA HAVE PRECIP THREAT OVER MUCH OF THE FORECAST AREA THURSDAY...BUT THEN DIFFER ON FRIDAY WITH ETA CONFINING MAIN THREAT TO THE SOUTH WHILE AVN SPREADS PRECIP OVER ALL OF THE AREA AGAIN FRIDAY. WITH TRACK OF CLOSED LOW AND COLD POCKET ON BOTH MODELS ALONG UT/AZ BORDER HAVE TRENDED TO TOWARDS ETA WITH THE DRIER SOLUTION IN THE NORTH...BUT HAVENT COMPLETELY REMOVED CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE NORTH FRIDAY. WEAK SPLIT FLOW WITH FAIRLY HIGH HEIGHTS OVER THE WEEKEND AS THE NEXT SYSTEM MAINLY DROPS SOUTH OFFSHORE SHOULD KEEP FORECAST AREA DRY WITH CLEAR TO PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES. THEN SPLITTING TROUGHS MOVE INLAND FIRST HALF OF THE WEEK...JUST SOME CLOUDS FOR NOW. LONGER RANGE MRF HAS BEEN QUITE VARIABLE ON STRENGTH AND TIMING OF TROUGH AND SUBSEQUENT WESTERLIES LATE NEXT WEEK WITH LATEST 12Z RUN QUITE ENTHUSIASTIC BUT ALSO QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THE 06Z RUN. SO IT SEEMS THE PATTERN IS DEFINATELY CHANGING WITH THE VERY WARM RIDGE CONDITIONS A THING OF THE PAST...BUT LOW CONFIDENCE IN WHAT THE NEW PATTERN WILL BE. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...NONE. ID...NONE. WY...NONE. && DUNN
IDZ024-025-UTZ001>021-WYZ021-021300- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 700 AM MDT WED OCT 1 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... THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The Salt Lake City radar (KMTX), 150 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:30 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A 64-year-old man was struck and killed by lightning while attempting to load a boat out of Strawberry reservoir and onto a trailer.
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, Wasatch | 2003-10-01 | 64 | Male | In Water | 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, October 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: 5327871.