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SALT LAKE CITY — The storm that arrived in Utah this weekend delivered the 1 to 2 feet of snow forecast for the mountains, but it also produced more snow in the Wasatch Front valleys and benches than anticipated.
Salt Lake City International Airport officially received only a trace of snow, but other valley areas picked up measurable snow totals. Children brought their sleds to Liberty Park because enough snow had fallen there. Snow also blanketed the hundreds of flowers planted at Temple Square.
Bench areas like the Olympus Cove in Millcreek and the Salt Lake City Avenues ended up with 2 to 8 inches of snow.
So what happened? Essentially there was enough moisture in the storm that temperatures ended up cooler than initially forecast, said KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson. This is called evaporative cooling.
The snow line was already near bench areas, but evaporative cooling took it to lower levels. For example, the temperature at the Salt Lake City airport dipped to 33 degrees at the airport as a cold front swung by amid a downpour, causing the rain to switch to snow.
"The more rain you pump into the lower levels of the atmosphere, the cooler you make the temperature," he said. "You're dragging the temperature down ... and that will cool it to the point where the snow line falls to the valley floors."
These types of weather events are more common in the spring and fall, Johnson adds. That's why it's rare but not unprecedented for snow to fall in and around Salt Lake City in May, even though April 16 is the average last day for snowfall, according to the National Weather Service's Salt Lake City climate book.
The agency has tracked Salt Lake City weather since 1874, but it also notes the city averaged 0.1 inches of snowfall in May the past 30 years. That's exactly how much fell on May 17, 2017, the last time Salt Lake City officially received measurable May snowfall. A trace of snow was reported in May at least once in 2018, 2019 and 2022 before Sunday, according to weather service data.
As weird as May snowfall sounds, it's not the latest into a snow collection period that valleys have received snow. Utah's capital received 2 inches of snow on June 6, 1914, the only time measurable snow fell in June since records were created 150 years ago.
Per Utah newspaper archives, the storm delivered snow throughout several other parts of the state, as well as valleys across the West during an atypically wet June start. The "genuine snowstorm" that morning became the talk around town, even though the snow quickly melted, the Salt Lake Tribune reported the following day in 1914.
"Long before noon every trace of it had disappeared and the sun was shining, the air cooled and everybody (was) happy because they had a new weather record to talk about," the newspaper wrote.
Meanwhile, the weekend storm isn't over just yet.
Lingering showers delivered another 0.1 inch of precipitation at Salt Lake City International Airport Monday morning. Additional rain and snow are forecast to move through the region in waves through early Wednesday morning before the storm clears out, Johnson said.
KSL Weather models indicate that the storm could produce another 0.05 to 0.50 inches within communities throughout Utah's northern half between 6 a.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Wednesday. Alta could end up with close to 2 inches of additional precipitation.
Full seven-day forecasts for areas across Utah can be found online, at the KSL Weather Center.
