A persistent band of snow impacted parts of central Utah, dropping 14 inches between Salina and Freemont Jct. A portion of I-70 was closed for about 6 hrs.
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 persistent band of snow impacted parts of central Utah, dropping 14 inches between Salina and Freemont Jct. A portion of I-70 was closed for about 6 hrs. Other snowfall amounts (in inches) were, Teasdale 6 and Capitol Reef 2.
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 Feb 23, 3:00 AM MST, 2 hours earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 300 AM MST WED FEB 23 2005 .SYNOPSIS...AN UNSETTLED WEATHER PATTERN WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK OVER SOUTHERN UTAH WITH A DRIER AND MORE STABLE AIRMASS OVER THE NORTHERN PART OF THE AREA. WEAK TROUGH WILL MOVE OVER THE AREA BY SATURDAY. && .DISCUSSION...UPPER LOW OVER FAR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IS FURTHER SOUTH THAN EARLIER EXPECTED. SEE SLCPNSSLC FOR PRECIP SINCE MONDAY MORNING. SYSTEM IS PROGGED TO SLOWLY MOVE EAST INTO ARIZONA NEXT COUPLE DAYS WHILE AN UPPER RIDGE PRESSES DOWN FROM THE NORTH. FLOW HAS BECOME EAST TO SOUTHEAST OVER THE REGION AND BANDS OF PRECIP CONTINUE TO WEAKEN WHEN THEY REACH THE OLD DEFORMATION ZONE IN NORTHERN UTAH. VORT LOBE IS WRAPPING INTO EASTERN UTAH THIS MORNING WITH ASSOCIATED PRECIP AREA. AIR MASS BECOMES SLIGHTLY SURFACE BASED UNSTABLE IN CENTRAL UTAH TODAY AND MORE UNSTABLE IN THE FAR SOUTH. AREA OF PRECIP THIS MORNING WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE WEST ACROSS CENTRAL UTAH FROM PART OF CASTLE COUNTRY/SAN RAFAEL SWELL AND WESTWARD ASSOCIATED WITH THE VORT LOBE WHILE ADDITIONAL SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP...MAINLY SOUTH OF PROVO. A COUPLE SHOWERS MIGHT DEVELOP OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN ALONG I-80 AND MOVE IN EASTERLY FLOW TODAY BUT FLOW IS MOSTLY ANTICYCLONIC AND MORE STABLE. INCLUDED THE AREAS OF DENSE FOG IN THE BEAR AND CACHE VALLEYS THIS MORNING ALONG WITH LOCALLY BREEZY CANYONS WINDS IN THE WASATCH FRONT THANKS TO SURFACE HIGH BUILDING INTO WYOMING. TONIGHT VORT LOBE WRAPS WEST INTO NEVADA AND MOST SHOWERS WILL DISSIPATE. ON THURSDAY THE UPPER LOW CENTER WILL BE IN ARIZONA AND SOUTHERN UTAH WILL GET MORE SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDER THANKS TO THE DYNAMICS AND MARGINAL INSTABILITY. THE DRIER AIR MASS IN THE NORTH EXPANDS SOUTHWARD UNDER RIDGING ALOFT AND SURFACE HIGH PARKED OVER WESTERN WYOMING. GFS PAST RUNS HAVE GONE WITH OTHER MODELS WITH THE SUPPRESSING RIDGE FROM THE NORTH. UPPER LOW PROGGED TO BECOME ELONGATED BY FRIDAY AND FLOW VEERS TO SOUTHEAST. THIS SPREADS CLOUDS FURTHER NORTH. GOOD AGREEMENT WITH NAM AND UKMET...ECMWF AND GFS. ON SATURDAY WHATS LEFT OF THE UPPER LOW SKIRTS ACROSS SOUTHERN UTAH WITH SOME SUPPORT FOR SHOWERS. FLOW BECOMES NORTHWEST IN THE WAKE OF THE TROF ON SATURDAY. TEMPERATURE WISE THIS WEEK AIR MASS REMAINS -5 TO -6C AT 700 MB WITH SLIGHT COOLING BY SATURDAY. MORE SUN IN THE NORTH WILL PROVIDE GOOD MIXING IN MOST VALLEYS FOR TEMPS NEAR 50 EACH DAY BUT COLD OVERNIGHT LOWS IN MOUNTAIN VALLEYS. AIR MASS COLD ENOUGH FOR SNOW LEVELS DROPPING TO ABOUT 6000 FEET DURING NIGHT AND EARLY MORNING IN THE SOUTH LAND. DOOR IS OPEN FOR A POSSIBLE INSIDE SLIDER SHORT WAVE TROF TO CLIP UTAH FROM THE NORTH ON SUNDAY...OTHERWISE UPPER RIDGE BUILDS IN AS ANOTHER SYSTEM DIGS ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST PER DGEX/GFS/UKMET/ECMWF AND GFS ENSEMBLE MEAN. THIS CLOSED LOW IS PROGGED TO BE SIMILAR TO THE LAST AND SLOWLY MOVE INTO THE GREAT BASIN EARLY NEXT WEEK. AT THIS TIME APPEARS SHORT WAVE RIDGE WILL MOVE EAST OF UTAH BY TUESDAY AFTERNOON ALLOWING SOME PRECIP TO MOVE INTO WESTERN ZONES. HOWEVER IT IS PROGGED TO DIG AND BE CLOSED OFF SO IMPACTS MIGHT BE DELAYED OR MINIMAL FOR NORTHERN AREAS WITH THE POSSIBLE SPLIT NORTH PORTION ARRIVING MID WEEK. && .AVIATION...NO AVIATION ISSUES FOR KSLC...SEE SLCTAFSLC. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...NONE. WY...NONE. ID...NONE. && TARDY
1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Utah in 2005Every state in 2005This day in weather historyWarnings in Utah, February 2005
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: 5441486.