Winter Weather in Southern Mountains, Utah

Snow Squall. Numerous mesonet sensors across the southern mountains reported snow squall conditions, including heavy snow, wind gusts between 30 to 60 mph, visibility as low as 0.07 miles, and very low road grips indicative of a flash freeze.

A strong and moist trough pushed inland during the middle portion of February, leading to several days of impactful weather. Strong southwesterly flow on the leading edge of the trough resulted in many instances of strong winds and gusts, and moisture was sufficient to begin producing mountain snow more or less throughout the state. The deep nature of the trough then contained sufficient cold air to drop snow levels following a cold frontal passage, bringing snow to many valley floors, areas of scattered snow squalls, and a period of intense snowfall rates to some of the northern mountains. The snowfall resulted in numerous vehicle accidents, road and canyon closures, and avalanches (of which a fatality was reported).