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Winter storm warning in place for parts of Wasatch Front through Tuesday

Rain and scattered snow overnight Friday brought the season’s first major precipitation, with more to come; UHP closed part of I-215 and urged motorists to slow down.

People hike the snow-covered path at Wompatuck State Park, in Hingham, Mass., on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021. The winter storms that have wreaked havoc in large swaths of the country recently can also damage trees and shrubs. (Erin Minichiello via AP)

  | Oct. 9, 2021, 5:02 p.m.
| Updated: 5:33 p.m.

Unseasonably cold weather is expected to hit Utah and southwest Wyoming on Monday or Tuesday, bringing mid-November temperatures in early October and hard freeze conditions in some locations.

The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City is predicting “significant” mountain snow across the Beehive state with accumulations at higher elevations and portions of the east bench as temperatures fell.

In advance of that easterly-moving storm system, rainfall and some snow overnight Friday left hazardous driving conditions in many locales. A flood advisory was in place through 12:15 p.m. on Saturday in central Salt Lake County, though mild rains were expected to abate around noon.

Utah Highway Patrol reported early Saturday it had shut down Interstate 215 at about 3900 South in Salt Lake County due to flooding and urged drivers to slow down in the face of standing water on many roadways.

Winter weather advisories were in effect as of early Saturday for eastern portions of Salt Lake and Utah counties, most of Summit and Daggett counties, and northern sectors of Duchesne and Uintah counties spanning the Wasatch and Ashley National Forest areas, as the oncoming winter storm advanced.

Temperatures hovered in the mid-40s and low-50s early Saturday beneath overcast skies, but by Wednesday, were expected to drop to just above freezing in Ogden, Salt Lake City, Tooele and Provo and well below freezing in Park City and Heber, the weather service said.

The overnight storm on Friday, meanwhile, brought the season’s first significant snowfall across the Wasatch Front, with 7.8 inches registered at high elevations of Alta, 6 inches at Snowbird and 2.9 inches recorded at Snowbasin.

Scatterings of one to two inches fell in Park City and Little Cottonwood Canyon and just under an inch came down in Utah’s capital city, according to sensors at Salt Lake City International Airport. Weather cameras across the state indicate much of that snowfall did not stick at lower elevations.

But with significant snowfall accumulating overnight on Bald Mountain Pass in the high Uinta Mountains, officials advised motorists traversing Mirror Lake Highway to prepare for winter driving.

Late Friday’s weather also brought wind and major rainfalls across a state otherwise parched by drought, capped by up to 1.5 inches in Plymouth and 1.1 inches in Hurricane.

The advancing storm front had improved air quality across Utah’s 12 counties monitored for particulate matter and ozone as of early Saturday, with all reporting good conditions on Saturday.