This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Northern Utahns got a brief break from the snow for Tuesday morning's commute, but what was left on the region's roadways may have been worse — black ice.
Utah Highway Patrol troopers were out in force on the freeways and highways along the Wasatch Front the day after snow blanketed the valleys and smothered the mountains, leaving a slick, crusty layer on the asphalt.
That prompted UHP to restrict travel in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons, east of Salt Lake City, to vehicles with four-wheel drive and chains as Tuesday's commute got underway.
Initially, at least, motorists seemed to be heeding advise to slow down and take extra care on the frigid expanses of Interstates 15, 84, 80 and 215, and highways 89, 40, 191, 6 and 189 — all of which were listed on a morning Road Weather Alert as routes clogged with frozen slush and ice.
As of 8 a.m., UHP reported 16 crashes in Salt Lake and Utah counties combined; eight more had been called in to Salt Lake Valley public safety dispatchers.
On Monday, UHP responded to 96 crashes and 33 slideoffs along the Wasatch Front, including one accident in which a trooper's vehicle — at the scene of an earlier crash — was hit in Provo Canyon. No injuries were reported in that accident.
The region's treacherous travel conditions were the aftermath of three days of heavy snowstorms. The National Weather Service reported that as of Monday mid-morning, Bountiful had 9 inches, while Ogden reported 7.5, Salt Lake City measured 4.2 inches (7-12 on the east benches), Brigham City 6, Provo an inch, though up Provo Canyon 13 inches of the white stuff was recorded.
Indeed, the higher the elevation the deeper the snow — much deeper. Snowbird Ski Resort reported 41 inches at 8,100 feet elevation, and Alta Ski Resort, at the 8,662-foot Collins site, was a close second at 40 inches. The Canyons Resort came in at 35 inches, Brighton's crest 33 inches, Big Cottonwood's Spruces area 29, Powder Mountain 28, and the Park City Summit at 24 inches.
Other mountain locations likewise reported heavy snowfall, generally in the realm of 1-3 feet.
The forecast for the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys called for scattered snow showers to return by early Tuesday afternoon, with Wednesday generally free of snow. Thursday will see another snowy surge, however — and temperatures will range from overnight lows in the upper-teens to breezy daytime highs in the low-30s.
Over the next couple days, southern Utahns will see low temperatures dip into the upper-20s, but sunny, mostly clear skies days will bring highs in the upper-40s to low-50s
"Green," or healthy breathing conditions prevail statewide through the midweek, according to the Utah Division of Air Quality.
The Utah Avalanche Center on Tuesday warned that the risk for potentially deadly mountain backcountry snowslides was "high" in the Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo districts, and "considerable" for the remainder of state's mountains.
For more extensive forecast information visit the Tribune's weather page at http://www.sltrib.com/news/weather/.
Twitter: @remims