Ice Storm — Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, Utah

2013-01-24 · Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, Utah

Event narrative

Of all the areas across Utah, the Salt Lake Valley was perhaps hit the hardest by the freezing rain event. Icy roads caused many automobile accidents, including 128 collisions, 25 accidents resulting in injuries, and 8 slide-offs in Salt Lake County. Two highway patrol officers were struck by out of control cars, with both incidents occurring on Interstate 15. Hundreds of people were injured due to slipping and falling on the ice, with over 100 patients treated for ice-related injuries at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray alone. The freezing rain also had major impacts at the Salt Lake City International Airport, with many flights delayed due to the icy runways. The entire airport was closed for three hours in the late morning and early afternoon, after a Frontier Airlines plane slid down the taxiway.

Wider weather episode

A rare freezing rain event occurred in Utah on January 24. Very cold air was trapped in valley locations due to a persistent inversion; when a weather disturbance brought precipitation to the area, and the system was too weak to break the inversion, freezing rain occurred at the surface, bringing widespread travel difficulties.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 431502. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.