This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A strong cold front blew into northern Utah Wednesday, greeting commuters with snow-laden thunderstorms and slick roadways throughout the region.
The National Weather Service put the mountains north and south of Interstate 80 under a Winter Weather Advisory through 7 p.m. Wednesday. Along with the northern Wasatch Range, the western Uintas braced for 4-8 inches of snow, driven by winds of 20-30 mph through most of the day.
The Salt Lake and Tooele valleys also looked for isolated thunderstorms and scattered snow showers with accumulations of up to 2 inches, with higher totals along the benches. Thursday was to bring partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid-30s, down about 5 degrees from Wednesday's forecast. Overnight lows will be in the low-20s.
Both Big and Little Cottonwood canyons began Wednesday with travel restricted to four-wheel drive or tire-chained vehicles as snowfall clogged mountain roads, and Little Cottonwood eventually was closed for avalanche control work into late afternoon. Semi-trailer rigs were required to use chains as well on east- and west-bound Interstate 80, which was closed completely at Evanston, Wyo., late Wednesday morning.
State Road 92, at the mouth of American Fork Canyon, also was closed for a time late Wednesday morning as snow fell heavily in Utah County.
All that precipitation also elevated the risk for potentially deadly backcountry mountain snowslides. The Utah Avalanche Center, as of Wednesday, rated the mountains above Logan, along with the Uintas, at "high" for avalanche danger, while the remainder of the state's slopes were graded at "moderate" risk.
The Utah Division of Air Quality awarded "green," or healthy grades to monitoring stations statewide.
The midweek storm system will skip southern Utah, though. Utah's Dixie expected highs in the low- to mid-50s under clearing skies, with overnight lows in the low-30s.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather.
Twitter: @remims