A potent storm system brought heavy snow across northern Utah.
Every event with a place to put it; 5 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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 potent storm system brought heavy snow across northern 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 Mar 6, 4:26 AM UTC, 34 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT
926 PM MST Sat Mar 5 2022
.UPDATE...The well advertised boundary has made its way into
northern Utah this evening and has parked over the Salt Lake and
Tooele valleys. Remaining rain has changed over to snow, and heavy
rates are producing some impressive accumulations thus far. The
band will move little overnight, resulting in heavy snow in those
areas as well as adjacent mountain locations. Early this evening,
issued Winter Weather Advisories for the Salt Lake and Tooele
Valleys as well as the northern Wasatch Front. Have since upgraded
the former two zones to a Winter Storm Warning given anticipated
totals and subsequent expected travel impacts. In issuing these
products, tweaked POPs for tonight and tomorrow and updated QPF
and snow total grids to reflect current thinking with regard to
the band. No additional updates planned at this time and the
previous discussion follows (aviation section updated).
&&
.SYNOPSIS...A low pressure system will closely cross the region
through Sunday night. An unseasonably cold airmass will follow for
early next week, with another storm system expected midweek.
&&
.SHORT TERM (Through 12Z Tuesday)...A compact upper low is noted
in afternoon water vapor imagery spinning over southern NV, with
the associated low level baroclinic zone currently lifting across
central and south central Utah. Strong vertical motion along this
boundary, and within a juxtaposed region of upper diffluence is
maintaining an area of heavy snowfall across this area with
snowfall rates at or above 2"/hour at times. Modest instability
coupled with this vigorous synoptic scale ascent has allowed for
occasional thunderstorms across southern Utah as well, This band
will continue to lift northeast into into the evening hours into
central and eventually northern Utah. In the wake of the band
winds have remained below wind advisory criteria, and thus have
dropped going headline for west central and southwest Utah.
Meanwhile more modest large scale ascent resides across northern
Utah, and continues to support widespread showers this afternoon,
with a few lightning strikes noted over the past hour. This shower
activity will persist ahead of the approaching baroclinic zone
into the evening hours.
As this much anticipated band lifts north into northern Utah this
evening, it should serve as a focus for widespread and locally
heavy precipitation across the southern and eventually central
Wasatch Front and adjacent terrain. Snow levels are expected to
remain above the valley floors through mid evening, but may
briefly lower within heavier precipitation.
This band is expected to eventually pivot and stall late this
evening and persist into the overnight hours. Some uncertainty
remains regarding exactly where this band will stall out, which is
not uncommon with developing deformation axis, but recent HRRR
runs have trended further south across Davis/Salt Lake and perhaps
northern Utah counties, which would make sense given the compact
nature of the parent circulation. Snow levels will fall to the
valley floors by the time this band stalls out, however given
recent elevated temperatures and warm surface/soil temperatures,
most accumulation should remain on non-treated surfaces unless
more intense snowfall in excess of 2"/hour is able to develop.
These factors suggest a relatively low impact event, and given
that expected snow totals will be marginally into the advisory
range across the valleys, have opted against issuing a Winter Wx
Advisory for the time being. However this will need to be
monitored closely as the event unfolds.
Away from the Wasatch Front, accumulating snowfall well into the
advisory range still looks like a good bet across the Wasatch
Range eastward into Uinta County WY. As such have maintained these
advisories, and expanded into the Wasatch Back primarily for the
Ogden/Morgan valleys.
As the upper trough continues east Sunday a period of unstable
northwest flow will follow across northern Utah late Sunday
morning through Sunday afternoon. This will result in additional
snowfall particularly across areas favored in northwest flow such
as the Cottonwoods. One final wave drops into the area Sunday
night into early Monday bringing additional showers, a re-
enforcing shot of cold air, and some potential for lake
enhancement downwind of the GSL and Utah lakes.
With this increasingly cold series of troughs, max temperatures
will remain confined to the 30s across most valleys excluding the
lower deserts Sunday and again Monday...a good 10 to 15 degrees
below climo.
.LONG TERM (After 12Z/5AM Tuesday)...Good agreement exists amongst
most GEFS, EC, and CMCE ensemble members for a upper level trough
impacting northern Utah/SW Wyoming, if not the entire state, Tuesday-
Thursday. NW flow will remain after the passage of this trough
giving mountain locations on and off snow showers through the end of
the week. Afterwards, ridging to the west starts to build in for the
weekend which will warm temperatures and bring dry conditions to the
CWA.
The upcoming system is currently forecast to mainly impact northern
Utah, however some guidance is indicating the potential for southern
Utah becoming more active late Thursday/early Friday. This will need
to be monitored to see if more members get on board. W/NW flow in
tandem with the upcoming system could help to orographically enhance
snowfall across mountainous terrain. Given the cold air accompanying
the trough snow levels should support all snow down to valley floors
for the entirety of the event. Snow showers in the mountains could
linger through Thursday/Friday for mountain locations given NW flow
before drier air pushes in ahead of a building ridge for the
weekend. Temperatures will bottom out by Thursday and Friday with
highs 15-25 degrees below average. NBM QPF values for northern
valleys indicate a 25-75% range of 0.3-0.75" with 0.5-1.5" in the
northern mountains. Southern/central valleys are lower with just a
trace-0.25" and southern/central mountains 0.10-0.75". This would
roughly translate to snowfall totals 3-6" for northern Utah valleys
with a trace-1" for central and southern Utah valleys, and 6-12" for
northern mountains with 2-6" for central and southern mountains.
Ridging begins to build in for the weekend which will increase
temperatures about 10 degrees for Saturday along with drier
conditions.
&&
.AVIATION....AVIATION...KSLC....Heavy snow is likely to persist over
the KSLC terminal through 16Z with VIS near 2SM and CIGs hovering
around 500ft creating MVFR/IFR conditions. Winds will be light
and variable as outflow boundaries from snow showers create
variable conditions at times, however a mean southerly flow will
dominate until a northwest flow dominates after the bulk of snow
starts to diminish. After the snow retreats expect conditions to
return to VFR after 16Z with light northwest winds and CIGs likely
above ridgetops.
REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING...A band of heavy snow persisting
through 16Z across northern Utah will mainly impact KOGD, KEVW, and
KHCR. VIS will be near 2-3SM with occasional periods <1SM under
heavier bursts of snow. CIGs will also be between 500ft-3kft
resulting in periods of MVFR/IFR conditions. Winds are generally
light and variable, however as the snow exits northwest winds
impacting the northern sites could gust 15-20 kts. Elsewhere,
conditions are expected to maintain VFR status except for KPVU which
could see some exiting snow around 12-16Z which would result in MVFR
or IFR conditions.
&&
.SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
UT...Winter Weather Advisory until 11 AM MST Sunday for UTZ104.
Winter Storm Warning until 11 AM MST Sunday for UTZ102-105.
Winter Weather Advisory until 8 PM MST Sunday for UTZ108>112.
Winter Weather Advisory until 8 AM MST Sunday for UTZ113-117.
WY...Winter Weather Advisory until 8 PM MST Sunday for WYZ021.
&&
UPDATE...Traphagan
SHORT TERM...Seaman
LONG TERM/AVIATION...Mahan
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.phpThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
5 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Storm total snow accumulations included 10 inches in Tooele, Stansbury Park, and Grantsville.
Storm total snow accumulations included 14.4 inches in Upper Millcreek, 14 inches in the Avenues, 13.5 inches Sugarhouse, 12.9 inches at The University of Utah, 11 inches in Salt Lake City, 10 inches in West Jordan, and 8.1 inches at Salt Lake City International Airport. An estimated 30,000 Rocky Mountain Power customers were without power. Numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines were downed throughout Salt Lake City. In addition, Utah Highway Patrol troopers responded to 114 crashes and helped 169 other drivers get their vehicles off the roadways.
Storm total snow accumulations included 11 inches on the Bountiful Bench, 9.7 inches in Bountiful, 9.1 inches in Fruit Heights, and 6.3 inches in Farmington.
Storm total snow accumulations included 19 inches in Emigration Canyon, 15.9 inches at City Creek Water Plant, 15.5 inches at Parleys Summit, and 13 inches at Mountain Dell Dam. In addition, 1.0 to 1.5 inches of snow water equivalent, or approxiately 15 to 21 inches of snow, were measured at the Louis Creek, Horse Ridge, Lookout Peak, and Parrish Creek SNOTELs.
Storm total snow accumulations included 11 inches in Randolph and 10 inches in Woodruff.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Utah in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Utah, March 2022
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: 1015101, 1015102, 1015103, 1015104, 1015105.