Winter Storm — Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, Utah

2013-01-10 to 2013-01-12 · Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, Utah

Event narrative

Storm totals across the Salt Lake Valley included 34 inches of snow at Upper Millcreek, 20 inches at Olympus Hills and the Upper Avenues, 19 inches in Holladay, 14 inches in South Salt Lake, and 10 inches of new snow at Salt Lake City International Airport. This snow seriously impaired travel across the area, with Salt Lake County reporting the most accidents in the entire state, with a total of 108 property damage incidents and 128 slide-offs, as well as 7 reported injuries. Strong winds were also observed ahead of and with the initial cold front on January 10, including a 61 mph wind gust at the Great Salt Lake Marina, and 60 mph wind gusts at Olympus Hills and Olympus Cove. These winds knocked over and destroyed the sign for a KFC restaurant in Sandy.

Wider weather episode

A cold and powerful storm system moved into Utah beginning on the 10th of January. The heaviest snow in many locations fell on the 11th, before snow showers tapered off on the 12th. Because this storm was so cold, snow ratios were higher in the valley locations of northern Utah than at the higher elevations. In some cases, this resulted in two to three times as much snow in the valleys than in nearby adjacent mountains.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 429870. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.