A cold Pacific storm system moved into Utah starting April 23, bringing heavy snow to Utah's northern mountains, and strong gusty winds to southwest Utah.
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 cold Pacific storm system moved into Utah starting April 23, bringing heavy snow to Utah's northern mountains, and strong gusty winds to southwest Utah.
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 23, 3:13 PM MST, 1 hour 42 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT 413 PM MDT Sun Apr 23 2017 .SYNOPSIS...A series of progressively colder and energetic storm systems will cross the region beginning today, and continuing through the upcoming work week. && .SHORT TERM (Through 00Z Thursday...Surface cold front is pushing southward across the western Utah valleys this afternoon with it currently across Juab County angling northeast towards Spanish Fork. The dynamics aloft are lagging behind this front by 50-75 miles and this is where the showers are developing along with isolated thunderstorms. The northwest winds behind this front are generally 10-20 mph with gusts to 30 mph but could gust to over 40 mph in association with any shower or thunderstorm. Although the surface front will move across southern and eastern Utah overnight the dynamics aloft will remain over central and northern Utah this evening for that chance of showers and isolated thunderstorms. Satellite showing a crisp back edge to the cloud shield over eastern Nevada and that clearing should reach the Wasatch Front right about midnight. Therefore, temperatures are expected to be a few degrees colder tonight than last night due to clearing skies and the colder air mass moving in. The next upstream trough will move rapidly into northern Utah Monday morning with precip breaking out by mid to late morning along the Wasatch Front and Mountains. Since the leading edge of this system will be warm advection, areas favored by warm advection; i.e. northern Wasatch Front will have the best chance of showers prior to noon. However, by mid afternoon the trough axis at 700 mb will pass across the Wasatch Front and the flow will switch to northwest cold advection. Favorable jet dynamics will also be overhead at this time. This should bring widespread precip from about Utah County northward by afternoon. PW amounts are only near 0.50 of an inch so not expecting widespread big rain amounts but rather 0.20-0.50 of an inch through Monday night. Farther south, the threat of precip will be considerably less due to downsloping off the central and southern mountains. However, areas along the I-15 corridor and the central mountains should see some scattered showers. A cold and moist northwest flow will continue Tuesday as the cold pocket aloft moves into northern Utah keeping the threat of showers continuing for not only northern Utah but also west central valleys and the central mountains. The 700 mb temps will be cold enough to support snow levels lowering briefly to the benches of the Wasatch Front Tuesday morning. This trough will exit and rapid drying is expected by Tuesday evening across the entire CWA save the Uintas and southwest Wyoming where a minimal threat will continue. Another system will enter far northwest Utah Wednesday morning and move southeast across most of the CWA by Wednesday evening. Below normal temperatures and wet conditions are expected from about Cedar City to Bryce northward Wednesday. .LONG TERM (After 00Z Thursday)... The long term period begins with some notable discrepancies evident between the GFS/CMC and EC solutions. All guidance depicts a shortwave trough diving into Northern UT coincident with a NW-SE oriented upper level jet more or less bisecting Utah. The GFS/CMC are more amplified with the shortwave and also position the jet in a more favorable location over NW UT and these dynamical features provide the ingredients for frontogenesis in that area early Thurs. The tightening baroclinic zone then pushes SE wrd through Northern/Central portions of the area Thurs AM resulting in a large swath of fairly intense frontal precip impacting Northern/Central Utah. 700 temps then cool considerably in the wake of the front decreasing to near -10C by late Thurs/early Fri, consequently any precip falling in this time would fall as snow in most locations. The EC is less bullish with the Thurs shortwave, resulting in less forcing for frontogenesis, additionally mid-level flow is more zonal limiting mid-level cold advection. However, even if the EC solution verifies moisture and large-scale ascent from jet dynamics/shortwave should still be sufficient to produce some valley rain/mountain snow early Thurs in the north, thus decided to raised PoPs on Thurs over the North. The EC does finally get the front going Thurs PM over Central Utah resulting in a period of relatively heavy precip over the Central Mountains. Showery precip will likely continue in Northern/Central Utah on Friday in the cool moist NW flow, with some lake enhancement possible as well, contingent on low-level moisture and thermal profiles. Ptype will be an issue during this period as the CMC/GFS solutions would drop snow levels to valley floors while the EC solution would keep snow levels around 5.5-6K feet. Hedged a bit keeping most of the valley precip as rain but switching to a mix after 12Z Friday... future shifts may have to modify this if the EC trends towards the North American models. Guidance is in good agreement that during the day Friday a mid-level trough over the Pac NW will dig southeastward and close-off over the area... resulting in cool temperatures, extensive cloud cover, and moderate precip chances areawide. This low gradually moves southeast of the area late Friday/early Saturday which may result in an extended period of wraparound precipitation in areas favored in easterly/northeasterly flow. Additionally depending on the positioning of the sfc low a setup for easterly downslope winds along the Northern Wasatch Front may be possible late Friday/early Saturday. However, at this time the sfc gradient does not look particularly favorable for this phenomenon. The low and associated wraparound precip finally move east of the area by Sunday and temps should warm a few degrees in most locations, although maxes will still be running 5-10 degrees below climo across the north. && .AVIATION...Conditions at the SLC terminal are expected to remain at VFR levels through the TAF period. Northwest winds may become gusty this afternoon with a cold front passage. Limited precip is expected with this front, however gusty erratic winds are possible near stronger showers. Winds are then expected to switch back to the southeast after 03z. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...None. WY...None. && SHORT TERM...Struthwolf LONG TERM...Carr AVIATION...Dewey For more information from NOAA's National Weather Service visit... http://weather.gov/saltlakecity For frequently asked questions about the Area Forecast Discussion visit... http://weather.gov/saltlakecity/general/afd_faqs.php
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT 325 PM MDT Sun Apr 23 2017 UTZ001>016-019>021-517-518-WYZ021-242130- Cache Valley/Utah Portion-Northern Wasatch Front- Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys-Southern Wasatch Front- Great Salt Lake Desert and Mountains-Wasatch Mountain Valleys- Wasatch Mountains I-80 North-Wasatch Mountains South of I-80- Western Uinta Mountains-Wasatch Plateau/Book Cliffs- Western Uinta Basin-Castle Country-San Rafael Swell- Sanpete/Sevier Valleys-West Central Utah-Southwest Utah- Utahs Dixie and Zion National Park-South Central Utah- Glen Canyon Recreation Area/Lake Powell-Central Mountains- Southern Mountains-Southwest Wyoming- 325 PM MDT Sun Apr 23 2017 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the western two thirds of Utah and southwest Wyoming. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight A weak cold front will bring scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms to northern Utah this afternoon and evening. Strong gusty winds are possible with these storms. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Monday through Saturday An active pattern is expected to set up across the outlook area for the upcoming week, with a series of low pressure systems bringing periods of valley rain and mountain snow. Precipitation may become heavy at times with significant snow accumulation possible in the northern mountains. Snow levels may fall below 6000 feet during the latter portion of the week. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Weather spotters are encouraged to report significant weather conditions according to standard operating procedures. For more information from NOAA/s National Weather Service visit... http://weather.gov/saltlakecity For information on potential road travel impacts visit... http://www.udottraffic.utah.gov/roadweatherforecast.aspx
2 high wind, 1 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
The ASOS at the Milford Municipal Airport/Ben and Judy Briscoe Field recorded a peak wind gust of 60 mph.
The Interstate 70 at Salina sensor recorded a maximum wind gust of 62 mph.
Storm total snowfall included 26 inches at Alta Ski Area and 20 inches at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Utah in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in Utah, April 2017
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: 696211, 696210, 696209.