Very cold air behind a departing winter storm allowed temperatures to plunge to record levels. Cedar City broke a 34 year record for the date with a low of 15 degrees.
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.
Very cold air behind a departing winter storm allowed temperatures to plunge to record levels. Cedar City broke a 34 year record for the date with a low of 15 degrees. Randolph in northern Utah dropped to a daily record of 10 degrees.
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 Mar 25, 10:04 PM MST, 1 hour 57 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 1004 PM MST FRI MAR 25 2005 .SYNOPSIS...AN UPPER TROUGH OVER THE AREA THIS TONIGHT WILL BE REPLACED BY A RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE FOR THE WEEKEND. && .DISCUSSION...IN GENERAL THINGS WINDING DOWN ACROSS THE AREA AS THE UPPER TROUGH CONTINUES TO SLIDE EAST OF THE AREA INTO SOUTHWEST COLORADO. STILL A COLD POOL ALOFT TO PASS THROUGH TONIGHT YET. MOIST NORTH AND NORTHWEST FLOW ALSO PUSHING SNOW SHOWERS UP AGAINST THE I-15 CORRIDOR ALL THE WAY DOWN TO CDC. WV IMAGERY SHOWS WEAK ROTATION DIVING DOWN INTO SOUTHERN IDAHO ASSOCIATED WITH THIS COLD POOL. THIS WILL MOVE OVER THE NORTH AROUND MIDNIGHT TO 2 AM ACCORDING TO 00Z PROGS. WILL HAVE TO WATCH DEVELOPMENT OF POSSIBLE LAKE BANDS AROUND THAT TIME. ONE AREA NOW MOVING OFF THE LAKE INTO SOUTHWEST SALT LAKE...ALTHOUGH NOT REALLY A TRUE LAKE BAND. CERTAINLY SOME INGREDIENTS IN PLACE FOR LAKE DEVELOPMENT...INCLUDING ONLY WEAK DIRECTIONAL SHEAR AND COLDER NORTHWEST FLOW THROUGH ABOUT 600 MB...LOW LEVEL INSTABILITY AND WARM ENOUGH LAKE TEMPERATURES. WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY WITH COLD POOL PASSING BY MAY BE TOO EARLY TO REALLY TIE INTO ANY DECENT LAND BREEZE FROM NIGHTTIME COOLING WHICH WILL BE GREATEST AFTER COLD POOL PASSES. LATEST ETA FIRES UP AREA OF QPF BETWEEN NOW AND MIDNIGHT DOWNWIND OF GSL...THEN BREAKS IT DOWN AFTER THAT. SO FOR NOW FORECAST IN SLC/TOOELE AREA COVERS THINGS BUT WILL KEEP AN EYE ON POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT AND UPDATE IF NECESSARY. WONT REALLY BE IN THE CLEAR UNTIL UPPER COLD POOL AND WEAK LIFT PASS. COOLER BUT DRIER NORTHERLY FLOW ACROSS THE AREA TOMORROW...THEN UPPER RIDGE AXIS MOVES OVER AREA SUNDAY SOMETIME AROUND SUNRISE. BY LATER IN THE DAY THE RIDGE AXIS IS EAST OF US AND MODERATE SOUTHWESTERLY LOW LEVEL FLOW AND WARMING KICK IN. NEXT TROUGH MOVES INLAND OVER THE SIERRAS BY MIDDAY MONDAY WITH MOISTURE AND A LEADING UPPER LEVEL JET MOVING INTO THE GREAT BASIN. 00Z GFS NOW BRINGS LOW LEVEL FRONT INTO NORTHWEST UTAH BY MONDAY AFTERNOON WHICH IS A LITTLE FASTER THAN EARLIER RUNS. IF THIS TREND CONTINUES IN THE NEXT RUN OR TWO THEN PRECIP TIMING WILL HAVE TO BE PUSHED UP A BIT FOR MONDAY. SHAPING UP TO BE A GOOD PRECIP MAKER...ALTHOUGH SHOULD MOVE THROUGH FAST MONDAY NIGHT AND EARLY TUESDAY. LATEST GFS TIME-HEIGHT FOR SLC LOOKING GOOD FOR 00Z TUESDAY...GOOD INSTABILITY AND RATHER DEEP LIFT FOR ABOUT A 12 HR WINDOW MONDAY NIGHT. 00Z GFS SHOWS A VERY SHORT BREAK TUESDAY BEFORE ANOTHER WAVE MOVES THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. NO CHANGES NEEDED TO THE FORECAST AT THIS TIME. && .AVIATION...NONE...SEE SLCTAFSLC. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...NONE. WY...NONE. ID...NONE. && JACKSON
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT 450 AM MST FRI MAR 25 2005 IDZ024-025-UTZ001>021-WYZ021-261400- CACHE VALLEY/IDAHO PORTION-CACHE VALLEY/UTAH PORTION-CASTLE COUNTRY- CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST MOUNTAINS- GLEN CANYON RECREATION AREA/LAKE POWELL- GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT AND MOUNTAINS-HENRY MOUNTAINS- NORTHERN WASATCH FRONT-SALT LAKE AND TOOELE VALLEYS-SAN RAFAEL SWELL- SANPETE/SEVIER VALLEYS-SOUTH CENTRAL UTAH-SOUTHERN WASATCH FRONT- SOUTHWEST UTAH-SOUTHWEST WYOMING-UTAHS DIXIE AND ZION NATIONAL PARK- WASATCH MOUNTAIN VALLEYS-WASATCH MOUNTAINS I-80 NORTH- WASATCH MOUNTAINS SOUTH OF I-80-WASATCH MOUNTAINS/IDAHO PORTION- WASATCH PLATEAU/BOOK CLIFFS-WEST CENTRAL UTAH-WESTERN UINTA BASIN- WESTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS- 450 AM MST FRI MAR 25 2005 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE WESTERN TWO-THIRDS OF UTAH...EXTREME SOUTHEAST IDAHO AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST WYOMING. .DAY ONE... TODAY WIDESPREAD SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE OVER THE AREA TODAY. THE SHOWERS WILL BE LOCALLY HEAVY...ESPECIALLY IN THE AFTERNOON. THE SNOW SHOWERS MAY BE MIXED WITH RAIN AT ELEVATIONS BELOW ABOUT 4500 FEET. SOME WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES ARE STILL IN EFFECT. PLEASE SEE THE LATEST WINTER WEATHER STATEMENT...SLCWSWSLC FOR DETAILS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THE NEXT STORM SYSTEM IS EXPECTED MONDAY NIGHT OR TUESDAY. HEAVY SNOW IS POSSIBLE IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS AND SOME NORTHERN VALLEYS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
2 cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
Record low temperature at Cedar City and And Randolph.
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, March 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: 5443238, 5443239.