A continued active pattern resulted in additional scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms to finish out the month of May, with some resulting in damage due to strong gusts.
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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 continued active pattern resulted in additional scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms to finish out the month of May, with some resulting in damage due to strong gusts.
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 31, 3:11 PM MST, 2 hours 9 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Salt Lake City UT 411 PM MDT Wed May 31 2023 .SYNOPSIS...Unsettled weather will increase in coverage and intensity through the end of the week as an upper level low moves in overhead and total column water increases to near an inch over parts of the forecast area. The pattern remains progressive and moist through the long term with temperatures hovering around climatological normals. && .SHORT TERM (Through 12Z/6AM Saturday)...The arrival of an upper level trough moving eastward in from southern California will usher in at least a few more days of unsettled weather. In a pattern much more familiar to the monsoon season of late summer than late May, moisture will continue to spread in overhead, slowly filling in at the low levels, pushing PWATs up towards 0.75in across the state by Friday and nearing an inch in northwestern Utah. This will slowly lead to a transition from wind as the primary thunderstorm threat midweek to locally heavy rain late in the week and early in the weekend. With that, also expecting an increase in thunderstorm coverage as the environment becomes more favorable with mid-level cooling and by Friday, the arrival of PVA from a dissipating shortwave trough diving into the northwestern corner of the forecast area. Thursday afternoon's expanded thunderstorm coverage will give way to continued showers overnight, and increasing in coverage once again Friday. Areas where a break in cloud cover allows for surface heating through the morning are most suspect for more vigorous convection, but won't be necessary as much of the state will see showers trigger off the terrain as well as on broad synoptic lift. Not expecting anything incredibly impactful, but slow enough storm motions and southeasterly steering flow setting up by Friday afternoon will set the stage for increased flash flood potential if storms are able to initiate and track over highly sensitive areas in particular. .LONG TERM (After 12Z/6AM Saturday)...The extended forecast period looks to remain active and wet over Utah and SW Wyoming. With a broad longwave trough continuing to eject waves over the region, coupled with growing cyclonic flow and synoptic forcing we will continue to see the potential for PM showers and storms. Consensus continues to grow on this feature weakening over the region and giving way to another low pressure system that will move off the Pacific and position itself over the SW CONUS by midweek of the upcoming work week. With the position of the current low just to the SW of our CWA it is expected to move northeastward and drive an interesting flow regime over Utah and SW Wyoming. Its more southern extent will give it access to larger volumes of moisture with PWAT values expected to be up to 200% of the climatological norms for this time of spring. Convective initiation will remain to start around the early afternoon hours after sufficient daytime heating allows for development. With the flow regime changing to more E/SE its likely that most initiation will be off the high terrain and either fading or enhancing into valleys. In addition to the potential for gusty outflow winds and lightning, weak deep layer flow overall will yield somewhat slow storm motions. As a result, periodic heavy rainfall associated with convection will remain a potential hazard to monitor for sensitive locations such as burn scars, normally dry washes, slot canyons, and slickrock areas. Warming aloft into the weekend will bring highs to their warmest during the period with many valleys reaching the 80s while far SW Utah hits the 90s. This could vary among cloud coverage from storms and showers however. We will continue to monitor the development of the next low as it moves onshore by midweek and likely keeps the active and wet forecast. && .AVIATION...KSLC...Isolated afternoon convection will create brief gusty/erratic winds and lightning before 00Z. Otherwise, VFR conditions with some scattered high clouds and northerly winds transitioning to southerly winds overnight. .REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING...Isolated afternoon convection over the entire region ending after 03Z. Any storms have the potential to contain gusty/erratic winds and lightning. Otherwise, VFR conditions with some scattered high clouds and diurnally driven winds. && .FIRE WEATHER...Little change in the forecast with confidence remaining high that moisture and instability will increase over the region through Friday and potentially carry through the weekend. A slow-moving trough will meander eastward from central- southern California and into the Great Basin, bringing with it the potential for more widespread and organized precipitation in the form of showers, thunderstorms, and by Friday the potential for more steady banded and terrain-driven precipitation. As a result, chances for gusty winds as well as wetting rain with thunderstorms will be heightened through the forecast period. By Saturday, a southeasterly flow regime is expected to set up, more like what is typically seen with the late summer southwestern monsoon. As a result of the uptick in low level moisture, afternoon relative humidity will generally remain greater than 30 percent statewide through the forecast period. && .SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... UT...None. WY...None. && Wessler/Selbig/Mahan For more information from NOAA's National Weather Service visit... http://weather.gov/saltlakecity
The Cedar City radar (KICX), 174 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:19 UTC.
1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
An apparent dry microburst occurred as a result of thunderstorms moving through the area. Broadcast media subsequently shared photos of a severely damaged airplane hangar.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Utah in 2023Every state in 2023This day in weather historyWarnings in Utah, May 2023
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: 1100383.