SNOW SURVEY CENTER


Last winter several people took numerous snow observations on several occasions in order to develop a better understanding of snowfall in the Salt Lake Valley. More involvement is occurring this winter season as faculty and other graduate and undergraduate students are becoming involved with taking snow measurements. There are plans to continue snows surveys in future season with hopes of eventually developing a snowfall climatology from the snow events.

There is no generic geographical domain in the images because a smaller region provides for a more accurate GEMPAK Barne's analysis, some snowstorms are isolated to one part of the valley, and sometimes there's a lack of data for large areas. As a result, the latitude and longitude that each image covers has been written below the image.

In addition, a brief description of the general weather conditions that were associated with the snowstorm is given.

The colors of the images are as follows:



October 25, 1996

Latitude:40.50 - 40.90, Longitude:111.95 - 111.78


This was the first significant snowfall of the season with snowfall levels hovering near the valley floor. As a result, the greatest accumulations occurred along the east benches where precipitation was heavier due to orographic enhancement and temperatures were colder. Apparently, from approximately State Street westward there was little if any snowfall for at least a couple of miles, however, because observations were taken in the early afternoon some melting had already occurred. Due to the heavy, wet nature of the snow and the significant foliage still on trees, power outages and some tree damage occurred along the east benches.
cant snowfall of the season with snowfall levels hovering near the valley floor. As a result, the greatest accumulations occurred along the east benches where precipitation was heavier due to orographic enhancement and temperatures were colder. Apparently, from approximately State Street westward there was little if any snowfall for at least a couple of miles, however, because observations were taken in the early afternoon some melting had already occurred. Due to the heavy, wet nature of the snow and the significant foliage still on trees, power outages and some tree damage occurred along the east benches.
November 16, 1996

Latitude:40.50 - 40.90, Longitude:112.05 - 111.78


This was a moderate snowfall event with measurable amounts throughout the Salt Lake Valley from Bountiful down to Sandy and from Kearns to the east benches. Observations were taken in the mid to late morning hours. The distribution of snowfall follows a pattern that is very common with higher amounts along the east benches particularly near the Cottonwood Canyons, higher amounts in the south and particularly southwest corner of the valley, and lower amounts from near the airport southeastward and eventually southward through the central part of the valley.
November 29, 1996

Latitude:40.50 - 40.80, Longitude:111.96 - 111.80


This was the shortest snow survey of the 13 surveys with only two transects completed along 13th East and I-15. Once again the heaviest amounts of snowfall occurred in the southeastern part of the valley.

December 6, 1996
Latitude:40.50 - 40.80, Longitude:112.05 - 111.78

Unfortunately, data was somewhat lacking in the northern part of the valley for this case and there was limited north-south oriented data tracks which adds to the uncertainty of these values. Once again the greatest amounts occurred along the benches and locations where the elevation is higher to the southeast and west.

January 14, 1997

Latitude:40.55 - 40.70, Longitude:112.10 - 111.78


This case was unique because of the strong downslope winds that occurred with this storm. As a result, snow measurements on the north end of the value were not accurate due to the drifting and blowing snow. The "Sandy Eddy" was persistent throughout this period as the strong winds to north entered the valley creating a counter-clockwise circulation induced by terrain blockage to the west and south which may have contributed to the continuous light snowfall in the southern end of the valley. The highest amounts occurred along the higher terrain particularly in the southeast.

February 5, 1997

Latitude:40.60 - 40.80, Longitude:112.05 - 111.78


This storm was unusual because the distribution of snowfall was fairly even across the valley increasing from the west to east slightly. The lowest amounts occurred in the southwest corner with the greatest amounts along the east benches.

February 27, 1997

Latitude:40.50 - 40.80, Longitude:112.45 - 111.78


This case was of particular interest because of the lake enhanced snowfall that occurred after the front moved through the area. Once again, the distribution of snowfall was the usual pattern in the Salt Lake Valley. The Lake Effect Event that followed was confined to the east side of the Tooele Valley and the Oquirrh Mountains.

February 28, 1997

Latitude:40.50 - 40.80, Longitude:112.45 - 111.78


This survey was from the same case as was previously mentioned, but I decided to take measurements the following morning to determine if there was any significant snowfall overnight (mostly lake enhanced). The pattern of snowfall distribution was very similar to the previous nights observations, however, there was significantly more snow on the ground in the Tooele Valley. Due to the settling of the snow on the ground from the previous day, it is hard to make any definitive conclusions about additional snow that occurred overnight.

Differences between February 27 and 28, 1997 snowfall measurements

Latitude:40.50 - 40.80, Longitude:112.45 - 111.78


This shows the difference in snowfall I had measured from the night of the 27th to the morning of the 28th to show additional accumulations.

April 5, 1997

Latitude:40.55 - 40.90, Longitude:112.05 - 111.78


The distribution of snow was quite unusual with a corridor of significant snowfall in souther Davis and northeastern Salt Lake Counties. Hardly any snowfall occurred to the west and southwest of the valley. Even the traditionally hard hit southeast part of the valley had marginal snowfall. Alta reported 2 feet of snow. No other locations except for this swath of snow reported significant accumulations except for near Spanish Fork which could have been the result of lake enhanced snowfall from Utah Lake. The Salt Lake radar had insigificant reflectivity returns in all other locations except for the region of heavy snowfall. As a result, it's likely that the Great Salt Lake played a role in generating the heavy snow.

October 12, 1997

Latitude:40.34 - 40.90, Longitude:112.32 - 111.78


During this event, snow had difficulty accumulating on the lowest elevations of the valley floor as temperatures were too warm. As can be the case in early fall storms, accumulations were mostly restricted to the east benches once the main storm system had moved through the region. Lake enhanced snows began to develop the evening of the 11th after the main storm moved through much earlier that day. A well organized band developed in the mid-late morning hours of the 12th which mostly affected the Oquirrhs and southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley. Accumulations were particularly impressive near Herriman where a foot was common.

October 24, 1997

Latitude:40.45 - 40.90, Longitude:112.32 - 111.78


This case was nearly identical to the previous snow survey. The survey was not as thorough, but the general distribution of snowfall is similar. This storm was less organized than the previous one which may account for the general lack of snowfall particularly in the northern part of the Salt Lake Valley. Some lake enhanced snow bands developed in the morning hours of the 24th which greatly added to the snowfall in the southwest portion of the valley and into the eastern parts of the Tooele Valley where most of the lake enhanced snowfall occurred. Tooele reported just two inches of snow at 7:00 a.m. on the 24th but by that evening the total snowfall was up to five inches.

Latitude:40.45 - 40.95, Longitude:112.40 - 111.78

They don't get much bigger than this. Many bench locations were measuring the snow in feet rather than inches. Some locations had from 1 to 2 1/2 feet of snow. Three significant factors contributed to the large snowfall totals: negative tilt trough for much of the event, northwesterly low level flow after frontal passage (afternoon of the 8th to morning of the 9th), and lake-enhanced snowfall in Eastern Tooele County (morning of the 9th to evening of the 9th). Also of note was the veering of winds with height. Surface winds after frontal passage were predominantly from the northwest which gradually shifted to the north, but by 700 mb they had shifted to the east and southeast. This provided for orographic enhancement of precipitaiton in the low-level flow, but also added wrap around moisture from the upper-level low.

Information about the December 8th-9th snowstorm.


Latitude:40.40 - 41.00, Longitude:112.70 - 111.75

Unprecedented snowfall! Numerous snowfall records fell as a result of the initial heavy snow associated with a strong and slow moving cold front and then almost three consecutive days of lake enhanced snows. The initial snowstorm resulted from a strong storm that persisted over the region for a day with cool northwestelry flow at the sur face and strong southerly flow aloft. Precipitation was moderate to heavy for much of the 24th. This initial snowfall generally brought from 6-12 inches across the greater Salt Lake Valley. After the main storm system progress ed eastward, a persistent cool northwesterly flow developed over northern Utah fo r three days! Scattered snow persisted, but became heavy in lake enhanced sno wfall bands. An additional 1-2 feet of snow generally fell over a wide region to the east and southeast of the Great Salt Lake. Storm total snowfall were generally in from 1-2 feet with some of the higher east bench locations receiving 2-3 feet.

Information about the February 24th-27th snowstorm.