A Pacific trough brought rain to the valleys and snow to the benches and mountains of northern Utah. The heaviest snow fell on Little Cottonwood Canyon.
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 Pacific trough brought rain to the valleys and snow to the benches and mountains of northern Utah. The heaviest snow fell on Little Cottonwood Canyon.
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 Apr 24, 4:58 AM MST, 2 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE CITY UT
558 AM MDT THU APR 24 2008
.SYNOPSIS...AN UNSEASONABLY COLD PACIFIC STORM WILL CROSS THE AREA
TODAY. WEAK HIGH PRESSURE WILL FOLLOW FOR TONIGHT AND FRIDAY.
ANOTHER COLD FRONT WILL DROP OUT OF THE NORTH AND ACROSS THE AREA
EARLY SATURDAY. WARM DRY HIGH PRESSURE WILL BE OVER THE REGION
SUNDAY AND MONDAY.
&&
.DISCUSSION...THE COLD UPPER LOW IS MOVING THROUGH THE GREAT
BASIN AND NORTHERN ROCKIES THIS MORNING. WIDESPREAD PRECIP HAS
DEVELOPED ACROSS THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE FORECAST AREA BEHIND
THE ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT WITH SNOW LEVELS DOWN TO AROUND 5000 FT.
THE FRONT HAS MADE IT THROUGH ABOUT THE NORTHWEST HALF OF THE AREA
AND WILL PUSH RAPIDLY THROUGH THE REMAINDER BY ABOUT MID MORNING.
SEVERAL RE-ENFORCING SURGES OF COLD AIR SHOULD KEEP PRECIP GOING
ALONG THE WASATCH FRONT AND OVER THE ADJACENT MTS AS THE UPPER LOW
TRACKS EAST TODAY THEN PRECIP WINDS DOWN RAPIDLY LATE TODAY OR
THIS EVE AS THE LOW MOVES AWAY.
EXPECT SUFFICIENT SNOW IN THE NRN MTS TO REACH ADVISORY LEVELS AND
THIS IS WELL COVERED WITH EXISTING SNOW ADVISORY.
TIGHT NORTHWEST PRESSURE GRADIENT BEHIND THE FRONT WILL KEEP IT
WINDY ACROSS MOST OF THE AREA INTO THIS EVE.
THE COLD AIRMASS IN PLACE COMBINED WITH CLEARING SKIES AND
DIMINISHING WINDS OVERNIGHT SHOULD ALLOW TEMPS TONIGHT TO REACH
FREEZING OR BELOW IN ALL VALLEYS EXCEPT THE FAR SOUTH...WITH A
FEW RECORD LOWS POSSIBLE.
WEAK SHORT WAVE RIDGING TOMORROW WILL ALLOW THE AREA TO WARM UP
SOMEWHAT BUT ANOTHER SHORT WAVE DROPPING DOWN OUT OF THE NORTH
WILL BRING ANOTHER CHANCE OF PRECIP TO THE NORTH FRIDAY NIGHT AND
A COOL BUT DRY NORTHERLY FLOW FOR SATURDAY.
THE STRONG WEST COAST RIDGE MOVES INLAND SUN THEN OVERHEAD ON MON
WITH STRONG WARMING BOTH DAYS. RIDGE SHIFTS EAST MON NIGHT/TUE
THEN MED RANGE MODELS DIVERGE ON HOW THEY HANDLE THE NEXT PAC
TROF. LEFT GRIDS PRETTY MUCH UNCHANGED IN DAY 4-7 PERIOD DUE TO
LOW CONFIDENCE.
&&
.AVIATION...AN AREA OF RAIN WILL COME TO AN END AT THE KSLC TERMINAL
BY 13Z THIS MORNING. MVFR TO AT TIMES IFR CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE
THROUGH THIS TIME. ANOTHER AREA OF PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO
DEVELOP BETWEEN 14 AND 16Z. CEILINGS ARE EXPECTED TO AGAIN FALL INTO
THE IFR TO MVFR RANGE WITH OCCASIONAL RESTRICTIONS IN VISIBILITY IN
THE HEAVIEST RAIN. THERE IS A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF IFR OR LOWER
CONDITIONS IN SNOW THRU 19Z. RAIN WILL BECOME SHOWERY THIS
AFTERNOON...HOWEVER CEILINGS WILL REMAIN BELOW 6000 FEET AGL UNTIL
THIS EVENING. NORTHERLY WINDS ARE EXPECTED THROUGHOUT THE DAY AND
INTO THE EVENING.
WINDS WILL LIKELY BE VARIABLE IN THE VICINITY OF SHOWERS THROUGHOUT
THE DAY.
&&
.FIRE WEATHER...THE COLD FRONT WILL CROSS EXTREME SOUTH CENTRAL
AND SOUTHWESTERN UTAH THIS MORNING WITH STRONG POST FRONTAL WINDS
CONTINUING INTO THE EVENING. HUMIDITY RECOVERIES WERE FAIR TO
POOR IN THIS AREA AND WILL QUICKLY FALL BELOW 15 PERCENT LATER
THIS MORNING. THEREFORE THE RED FLAG WARNING WAS EXTENDED FOR FIRE
WEATHER ZONE 440 THROUGH THIS EVENING. WINDS WILL BE LIGHTER
ACROSS FIRE WEATHER ZONE 439...ALTHOUGH ISOLATED RED FLAG
CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE IN THIS ZONE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.
&&
.SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
UT...RED FLAG WARNING UNTIL 8 PM THURSDAY FOR UTZ440.
SNOW ADVISORY UNTIL 6 PM THURSDAY FOR UTZ007-UTZ008-UTZ009.
WY...NONE.
&&
WILENSKY/KRUSE
FOR MORE INFORMATION FROM NOAA/S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE VISIT...
HTTP://WEATHER.GOV/SALTLAKECITY (ALL LOWER CASE)1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Alta Collins received 14 inches of new snow, while Spruces UDOT received 13 inches, both of which occurred in less than 12 hours.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Utah in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Utah, April 2008
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: 96477.