A strong arctic cold front moved through the state and brought with it widespread mountain and valley snowfall. Several areas in the Wasatch Mountains and along the Wasatch Front received significant snowfall.
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 strong arctic cold front moved through the state and brought with it widespread mountain and valley snowfall. Several areas in the Wasatch Mountains and along the Wasatch Front received significant snowfall. These areas included Farmington Canyon and Parish Creek with 10 inches, Alta 9 inches, 8 at Snowbird and Snowbasin, 6 at Tony Grove Lake, Parley's Summit, Oquirrh Mountains, and Brighton, 5 inches at Wasatch Plateau, Layton Bench, and Brighton Loop, 4 inches at Centerville, South Ogden, East Layton, Solitude, Sundance, Salt Lake City East Bench, the Bountiful Bench, 3 inches in the Salt Lake City Avenues, Upper Millcreek, Spruces, The Canyons, Alpine, Brian Head, Provo, and Springville.
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 21, 4:00 AM MST, 0 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 400 AM MST TUE DEC 21 2004 .SYNOPSIS...AN UPPER TROUGH EMBEDDED IN A COLD NORTHERLY FLOW WILL MOVE THROUGH THE AREA LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND OVERNIGHT. COLD NORTHERLY FLOW WILL REMAIN OVER THE AREA THROUGH THURSDAY. && .DISCUSSION...MANY PROBLEMS WITH MODEL DISAGREEMENT AT ALL FORECAST PROJECTIONS. TODAY AND TONIGHT...GFS/ETA BOTH KNOW ABOUT THE SHORT WAVE DIVING SOUTH THROUGH BC THIS MORNING...AND PLAN VIEW 700 MB FORECASTS FOR THIS AFTERNOON NOT TOO DIFFERENT BUT TIME/HEIGHT SECTIONS SHOW MUCH MORE INSTABILITY IN THETA-E THROUGH 500 MB IN ETA BUFR OUTPUT AND WITH GREATER VERTICAL MOTION THAN GFS. RESULT IS ETA GENERATES ABOUT .3-.5 INCHES OF WATER IN THE MOUNTAINS AND .2 INCHES ALONG WASATCH FRONT WHILE GFS GENERATES JUST A FEW HUNDRETHS OVER THE ENTIRE AREA. HAVE GONE WITH WETTER ETA SOLUTION BASED ON IDEA THAT OROGRAPHICS SHOULD BE HANDLED BETTER IN THE HIGHER RESOLUTION MODEL WITH LITTLE DIFFERNCE IN TRACK AND TIMING BETWEEN THE LIMITED DOMAIN AND GLOBAL MODEL. NOT MUCH DIFFERENCE WEDNESDAY WITH COLD AIR AND SCATTERED MAINLY MOUNTAIN SNOW SHOWERS INDICATED BY BOTH MODELS. THEN GFS BRINGS A VERY HEALTHY ARCTIC FRONT TO REINFORCE THE COLD AIR OVER THE AREA WED NIGHT AND EARLY THURSDAY WITH ANOTHER CHANCE OF LIGHT SNOW...WHILE ETA KEEPS THIS COLD AIR MAINLY EAST OF THE AREA WITH LITTLE OR NO CHANCE OF SNOW. HAVE SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE FOR THIS PERIOD WITH LOW POPS. THURSDAY ALSO DIFFERENT AS A VERY IMPRESSIVE WARM FRONT ALOFT MOVES OVER THE AREA. GFS 700 MB TEMPERATURES RISE FROM -18 TO -3 IN 24 HOURS FROM THURSDAY EVENING TO FRIDAY EVENING. BOTH MODELS HAVE THE WARM FRONT BUT GFS IS DRY WHILE ETA KICKS OUT MORE PRECIP ACROSS THE NORTH. HAVE LEANED TOWARDS THE DRIER GFS. WARMING ALOFT WITH VALLEY INVERSIONS SATURDAY...THEN THE REAL MODEL ROULETTE BEGINS FOR SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. TWO OR THREE GFS RUNS IN A ROW THROUGH 00Z 12/21 HAVE BROUGHT A VERY STRONG STORM THROUGH THE AREA SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND NIGHT WHILE CONSECUTIVE EC/UKMET RUNS KEPT THIS SAME TROUGH OFFSHORE ALONG 130 WEST. QUICK LOOK AT LATEST 06Z GFS NOW SHOWS THE STRONG STORM STILL COMING INLAND BUT IT SPLITS SUNDAY EVENING JUST BEFORE GETTING TO UTAH...WITH A CLOSED LOW DEVELOPING ALONG SOUTHERN SIERRA ON MONDAY. GFS SOLUTIONS HAVE BEEN IGNORED FOR NOW AND FORECAST BASED ON THE UKMET/EC SOLUTION WHICH WOULD PUT THE AREA UNDER A MILDER SOUTHWEST FLOW. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...NONE. WY...NONE. ID...NONE. && DUNN
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 306 AM MST TUE DEC 21 2004 IDZ024-025-UTZ001>010-WYZ021-221400- CACHE VALLEY/IDAHO PORTION-CACHE VALLEY/UTAH PORTION- GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT AND MOUNTAINS-NORTHERN WASATCH FRONT- SALT LAKE AND TOOELE VALLEYS-SOUTHERN WASATCH FRONT- SOUTHWEST WYOMING-WASATCH MOUNTAIN VALLEYS-WASATCH MOUNTAINS I- 80 NORTH-WASATCH MOUNTAINS SOUTH OF I-80- WASATCH MOUNTAINS/IDAHO PORTION-WASATCH PLATEAU/BOOK CLIFFS- WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS- 306 AM MST TUE DEC 21 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OF NORTHERN UTAH...EXTREME SOUTHEAST IDAHO AND UINTA COUNTY WYOMING. .DAY ONE...TODAY LIGHT SNOW WILL DEVELOP NEAR THE IDAHO BORDER LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND SPREAD SOUTH OVER THE AREA TONIGHT. ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE LIGHT BUT BECAUSE OF LOW TEMPERATURES ROAD SURFACES ARE LIKELY TO BECOME SLICK. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY THE COLDEST AIR SO FAR THIS WINTER WILL SETTLE OVER THE AREA WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. THE HIGHER VALLEYS WILL SEE OVERNIGHT TEMPERATURES BELOW ZERO AND THE LOWER ELEVATIONS WILL BE 10 TO 15 DEGREES BELOW AVERAGE. WARMING WILL BEGIN OVER THE WEEKEND WITH STAGNANT CONDITIONS DEVELOPING IN THE LOWER VALLEYS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE. UTZ011>021-221400- CASTLE COUNTRY-CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST MOUNTAINS- GLEN CANYON RECREATION AREA/LAKE POWELL-HENRY MOUNTAINS- SAN RAFAEL SWELL-SANPETE/SEVIER VALLEYS-SOUTH CENTRAL UTAH- SOUTHWEST UTAH-UTAHS DIXIE AND ZION NATIONAL PARK-WEST CENTRAL UTAH- WESTERN UINTA BASIN- 306 AM MST TUE DEC 21 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHERN UTAH. .DAY ONE...TODAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY THE COLDEST AIR SO FAR THIS WINTER WILL SETTLE OVER THE AREA WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. THE HIGHER VALLEYS WILL SEE OVERNIGHT TEMPERATURES BELOW ZERO AND THE LOWER ELEVATIONS WILL BE 10 TO 15 DEGREES BELOW AVERAGE. WARMING WILL BEGIN OVER THE WEEKEND WITH STAGNANT CONDITIONS DEVELOPING IN THE LOWER VALLEYS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE.
5 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Utah in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyWarnings in Utah, December 2004
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: 5431621, 5431622, 5431623, 5431624, 5431625.