Name: Hail in Utah, May 15, 2018
Start: 2018-05-15T14:10
End: 2018-05-15T14:10
Location: Utah

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS SLC wrote it up.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed over Utah on May 15, and large hail was observed with one storm.

What forecasters said that day

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 May 15, 9:01 AM MST, 5 hours 9 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 15, 9:01 AM MST, 5 hours 9 minutes before

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT
1001 AM MDT Tue May 15 2018

.SYNOPSIS...The upper level low pressure system over Nevada will
finally weaken as it moves north beginning later today. A dry and
warm southerly flow aloft will develop midweek, followed by the
next storm system arriving late in the week.

&&

.DISCUSSION...The upper low that has been positioned over Nevada
for the past several days is progged to begin a slow northward
drift and weaken starting later today. This movement will be in
response to the approach of the next closed low currently off the
California coast. This next feature will continue east and weaken
slightly as it enters the western Great Basin Thursday night.

Convection this morning has remained along the Utah/Nevada border
close to the center of the Nevada upper low. Good differential
heating should fire up convection over the higher terrain
beginning late this morning. This convection will likely focus on
the northern mountains where PWAT values are the highest. GOES
imagery does show pronounced drying across southern, central and
eastern Utah this morning. This drying will likely prevent deep
convection and end any threat of convective precip for this
afternoon.

Increasingly warm and dry southerly flow aloft the next couple of
days should drive temps to above normal levels with little or no
threat for convective precip outside of the far north through
Thursday. Looking at a modest increase in moisture ahead of the
previous mentioned upper low moving into the western Great Basin
Thursday night. Anticipating fairly widespread precip with this
feature for Friday and Saturday. The best chance at precip late in
the weekend will concentrate across northern Utah ahead of the
drier air nosing into the south beginning early Sunday.

Will make a few adjustments to the forecast grids today.
Otherwise the current forecast package looks good at this time.

&&

.AVIATION...Southeasterly winds currently in place at the KSLC
terminal are expected to switch to the northwest between 18-19z per
norm. A 20 percent chance exists that gusty and erratic winds will
briefly impact the terminal after 23z.

&&

.SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
UT...None.
WY...None.
&&

PUBLIC...CONGER
AVIATION...MERRILL

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

The radar

The Salt Lake City radar (KMTX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:10 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Salt Lake

When: May 15, 2:10 PM MST
Where: Salt Lake County, 0.52 mi E of Magna
Measured: 0.88 in hail
Reported by: Broadcast Media
Coordinates: 40.700, -112.090

Nickel-sized hail was observed in Magna.

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Utah in 2018 Every state in 2018 This day in weather history Warnings in Utah, May 2018

Sources

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: 759711.