It's Impossible To Forget The Year Utah Saw One Of Its Single Largest Snowfalls Ever
By Catherine Armstrong|Published February 07, 2019
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Catherine Armstrong
Author
Writer, editor and researcher with a passion for exploring new places. Catherine loves local bookstores, independent films, and spending time with her family, including Gus the golden retriever, who is a very good boy.
Utah is well-known for its snow, and skiers come from all over the world to experience it. We’ve had some bad storms in years past, and one of the worst was in 2003.
On Christmas Day in 2003, the snow started falling, kicking off what would turn out to be one of the worst single storms in Utah history. The storm lasted all the way through the holidays, finally coming to an end on December 31st.
Folks along the Wasatch front woke up to between one and three feet of snow. Shoveling was an almost constant chore for days.
Catherine Armstrong
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In the benches, residents had to start digging out of four feet of snow. Needless to say, local stores quickly ran out of snow shovels and bags of ice melt. Even snowblowers were hard to find.
In Utah's mountains, the snow really piled up. Farmington Canyon had a record-breaking 103 inches of snow during the six day storm, and the ski resorts rejoiced with skiers at Alta playing in 87 inches of powder.
More than 1 million residents along the Wasatch Front lost power on December 25th, and restoring it took much longer than expected. In fact, 300 or so homes did not have power again for nearly 20 days.
At least five people died directly from effects of the storm. Three snowboarders were killed on December 26th when an avalanche swept down from Mount Timpanogos. On the 28th, two people died in car accidents due to snow conditions.
