A strong and cold Pacific storm system intensified over western Utah during the Thanksgiving weekend and brought widespread heavy snows to many areas of the state. Heavy snows along and near the I-15 corridor between Cedar City and Fillmore as well as an area northeast of Price along US Highway 6 brought hazardous road conditions to holiday travelers.
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 and cold Pacific storm system intensified over western Utah during the Thanksgiving weekend and brought widespread heavy snows to many areas of the state. Heavy snows along and near the I-15 corridor between Cedar City and Fillmore as well as an area northeast of Price along US Highway 6 brought hazardous road conditions to holiday travelers. Numerous accidents along these two major travel arteries forced law enforcement officials to close them for several hours. Heavy snows along roadways in northern areas of the state also caused major travel problems. Six individuals traveling on slick roadways lost their lives during this two day stretch of winter weather in Cache, Rich, and Tooele counties. Some of the higher snowfall totals include 37 inches at Farnsworth Lake, 32 inches at Alta, 30 inches in the Oquirrh Mountains, 29 at Pine Creek, 26 inches at Snowbird, 25 at Brian Head, 24 at Solitude, 21 at Spruces, 20 at Brighton, 20 at Cedar Breaks, 19 at Trial Lake, 18 at Farmington Canyon, 15 at Strawberry Divide and the Wasatch Plateau, 15 at Kolob-Zion, 14 at Sundance, 14 at Tony Grove Lake, 13 at Snowbasin, 13 at Nephi, 12 at Tooele Bench, Parley's Summit, Levan, Gordon Creek, and Mount Pleasant, 11 at Fillmore, Cascade Mountain, and the Bountiful Bench, 10 at Deer Creek Dam and Morgan, 9 at Deer Valley, Santaquin, Layton Bench, Ferron, Cedar City, Heber City, and Tooele, 8 at Sandy Castle Dale, and Pinto Junction, 7 at Emery, Eden, Brigham City, East Layton, Herriman, Cottonwood Heights, South Ogden, North Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City East Bench, 6 at Park City, Ogden Bench, Centerville Val Verda, Milford, Randolph, 5 in Taylorsville, Fort Union area of Salt Lake Valley, Long Valley Junction, Altamont, Coalville, and Spanish Fork, 4 inches at Alpine, and Grantsville, 3 at the Salt Lake City International Airport and Stansbury Park.Some of the higher water totals include 2.80 inches at Farnsworth Lake, 2.30 inches at Pine Creek, 2.10 at Oquirrh Mountains, 1.76 at Alta, 1.75 at Snowbird, 1.60 at Farmington Canyon, 1.52 at Brian Head, 1.37 at Solitude. 1.30 at Cedar Breaks. 1.23 at Sundance, 1.10 at Wasatch Plateau, 1.10 at Kolob-Zion, 1.08 inches at Snowbasin, 1.06 at Fillmore, 1.00 at Trial Lake and Strawberry, .99 on the Bountiful Bench and Brighton Ski Area, 0.97 at Spruces, 0.90 at Cascade Mountain, Tony Grove Lake, and Parley's Summit, 0.86 on the Layton Bench, and 0.77 at the Cedar City Airport.
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 Nov 26, 8:58 PM MST, 8 hours 2 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 858 PM MST FRI NOV 26 2004 .SYNOPSIS...AN UPPER LEVEL LOW WILL DEVELOP OVER THE THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE AREA SATURDAY THEN DRIFT SLOWLY SOUTH THROUGH SUNDAY. THIS STORM SYSTEM WILL AFFECT THE AREA THROUGH MONDAY. && .DISCUSSION...NEXT EARLY WINTER STORM APPROACHING FROM THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST. SURFACE HIGH SLIDING PAST UTAH CURRENTLY AND SURFACE PRESSURE JUST BEGINNING TO FALL. CORE OF LAST FEW HOURS PRESSURE DROPS IN NORTHERN NEVADA AND SOUTHEAST OREGON AS THE WARM ADVECTION STREAKS EASTWARD INTO THE NORTHERN GREAT BASIN. 700 MB ANALYSIS THIS EVENING FEATURES A LARGE TEMPERATURE GRADIENT NORTH TO SOUTH ACROSS NORTHERN WESTERN OREGON AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. LOW WILL DEVELOP EASTWARD QUICKLY TONIGHT ALONG THIS BAROCLINIC ZONE. LATEST ETA RUN FASTER OVERALL WITH THE SYSTEM. NOW HAS SURFACE LOW MOVING TO EASTERN UTAH SATURDAY AFTERNOON RATHER THAN SATURDAY EVENING. WIND FORECAST FOR FAR SOUTHERN UTAH IS LIGHTER NOW AND WIND ADVISORIES DONT LOOK TO BE REQUIRED IN PRE-FRONTAL ENVIRONMENT. 700 MB CLOSED CIRCULATION MOVES EAST ALONG THE IDAHO BORDER BEFORE SHIFTING SOUTH INTO WESTERN COLORADO AS THE TROUGH ELONGATES SOUTHWARD IN A SPLITTING FASHION LATE SATURDAY NIGHT. NEW RUN ALSO MOVES THE JET AWAY FROM SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF THE CWA FASTER ON SUNDAY...LIMITING POTENTIAL OF WARNING SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS FOR THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST MOUNTAINS. QUICK LOOK AT LATEST GFS HAS A VERY SIMILAR SOLUTION TO 18Z RUN. JET IS SLIGHTLY STRONGER AT 300 MB AND SURFACE LOW DEEPENS 9 MB AS IT CROSS UTAH RATHER THAN 8 MB OF EARLIER RUN. ANY DEEPENING SURFACE LOW IN THE GREAT BASIN INDICATES A RICH SUPPLY OF LATENT HEAT. OVERALL CURRENT FORECAST RIGHT ON TRACK WITH THE NEW ETA GUIDANCE. A SOLID SNOW ADVISORY EVENT (CLOSE TO WARNING AMOUNTS) FOR MOUNTAINS AND MOST VALLEYS OF UTAH. OVERNIGHT SHIFT WILL ISSUE THE HIGHLIGHTS. 36 HOUR TOTALS AROUND 2 FEET FOR THE HIGHER NORTHERN SKI RESORTS... AROUND A FOOT FOR THE 6000 TO 7000 FOOT LEVEL AND LESSER BUT SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS FOR THE ADJACENT VALLEYS. RAIN RESTRICTED TO THE FAR SOUTHERN PORTIONS AND LOWEST ELEVATIONS. POTENTIAL FOR A SIGNIFICANT LAKE EFFECT EVENT SOUTH OF THE GSL...FAVORING THE OQUIRRH AND STANSBURY RANGES AND TOOELE VALLEY WITH A NORTH TO NORTHEAST FLOW DURING THE DAY SUNDAY. ALSO LOCAL STRONG WINDS IN DIXIE LATE SUNDAY THROUGH MONDAY MORNING. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...NONE. WY...NONE. ID...NONE. && GIBSON
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 530 AM MST FRI NOV 26 2004 IDZ024-025-UTZ001>011-WYZ021-271300- 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 BASIN-WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS- 530 AM MST FRI NOV 26 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EXTREME SOUTHEAST IDAHO...SOUTHWEST WYOMING AND NORTHERN UTAH. .DAY ONE...TODAY A WEATHER SYSTEM WILL SLOWLY MOVE EAST OF THE AREA WITH SNOW SHOWERS GRADUALLY DECREASING DURING THE DAY. SNOW ADVISORIES ARE IN EFFECT FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN UTAH THROUGH THIS MORNING. PLEASE CHECK THE LATEST WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE FROM SALT LAKE CITY /SLCWSWSLC/ FOR FURTHER DETAILS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THE NEXT PACIFIC STORM SYSTEM COULD BRING SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THE REGION SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. THIS SYSTEM WILL ALSO USHER IN MUCH COLDER AIR. REFER TO THE LATEST SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT /SLCSPSSLC/ FOR FURTHER DETAILS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE. UTZ012>021-271300- 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- 530 AM MST FRI NOV 26 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN UTAH. .DAY ONE...TODAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY A STORM SYSTEM COULD BRING SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THE REGION SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. THIS SYSTEM WILL ALSO USHER IN MUCH COLDER AIR. REFER TO THE LATEST SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT /SLCSPSSLC/ FOR FURTHER DETAILS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE.
9 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, November 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: 5431085, 5431086, 5431087, 5431088, 5431089, 5431090, 5431091, 5431092, 5431093.