Flash Flood — Salt Lake, Utah

2017-07-26 · near (slc)salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Event narrative

Thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall moved into the Salt Lake Valley in the early morning hours of July 26 and generally persisted for 3-4 hours, producing widespread flash flooding. The highest reported rainfall totals included 2.40 inches in Sugarhouse near Parleys Way, and many locations on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley reported 1.00 to 1.60 rain. The most significant damage occurred at East High School, where flooding caused $2.5 million in damage, with the largest percentage of the damage impacting the athletics department. Flooding was also reported at other Salt Lake City schools including Highland High School, Emerson Elementary, and the Salt Lake Center of Science Education. Another building that was damaged significantly was the Sprague Library, where water poured into the library's basement, damaging books, computers, furniture, and walls. Damage to the Sprague Library totaled $1.5 million. The train track for the TRAX light rail was under a foot of water on 200 West at 1100 South, causing significant delays and forcing UTA to use a bus bridge between stops. Street flooding was also reported at several locations across the city, including major thoroughfares such as Foothill Drive and 3300 South. Temporary power outages impacted about 4,200 customers across the metro area. Damage was reported at 172 total homes across the area. These private damages were primarily minor basement flooding, but 26 homes experienced damage due to overflowing sewer lines, and 3 homes experienced major damage of approximately $35,000 at each of these 3 houses. In total, private damages were estimated to be $1.75 million, while public damages were estimated at $7 million.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms continued across Utah for the last week of July, with many storms producing heavy rainfall. This led to flash flooding in many locations, including a particularly damaging flood in Salt Lake City. A lightning strike also led to two injuries on the morning of July 28.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.8067, -111.9398)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 716812. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.