Utah's Funny Climate

If it rains in December and snows several inches on May 24th, where are you? If it frosts on Father's Day weekend and hits 90 degrees on October 1st, where are you? The answer could be hell, but it is just Utah. More still, there is no way to dress on a clear day under high pressure (which is the dominant feature). "Here kids! Come and get your coats on, it's cold...(6 hours later)...Where is your coat?" "Oh, I forgot it at school. It was so warm that I took it off during recess."

I have a very elementary understanding of the reasons for Utah's climate. Factors such as elevation, continentality, cyclolysis (or frontolysis), low dew points, and large areas of internal drainage shape the climate. The result is the second driest state in the United States.  There is very little dynamic about Utah's climate. The storms come few and far between and are usually dying when they reach us (cyclolysis). The weather of Utah reflects the stability of the climate. A perfect example is the so-called "Blizzard" in northern Utah in November just before Thanksgiving. There were locations that experienced "blizzard-like" conditions for an hour or two. Some locations even saw a few inches. However, a blizzard it was not. The warnings were laughable. Strangely, a couple weeks later many locations stretching from Bountiful to Cove Fort saw a foot to twenty inches. This is not indicative of dynamism. On the contrary, Utah is completely predictable almost all the time. On that rare occasion when a storm survives to reach the Beehive state, it is just a crap shoot. There are favored areas for snowfall (e.g. Bountiful Bench, Olympus Cove, Tooele, U of U campus, the cottonwood canyons, Ben Lomand, etc.). There are also rain shadow holes like Lehi or Vernal that usually get little precipitation comparatively. The same works in the macro scale. The Great Basin is a hole between the mighty Sierra and the lofty Rockies. By hole is merely meant that it is relatively low not actually low in elevation. When cold air flows over warm, wet land or water, storms flourish. That is why the East Coast from the Outer Banks to Nova Scotia experiences amazing storms. When cool wet air flows over colder dry air, storms die quickly. That is the story with the Great Basin. The storms that do come are only slightly less likely to dump snow on Utah in May as they are in December. During stable times, watch out. Spring, Summer, and Fall can bring 50 degree 24-hour temperature swings. Winter can bring days, weeks, or even months of inversion fog.

The original proposal for statehood (called Deseret) included parts of the southern coast of California. When that was rejected in Washington, any hope of variety was squelched. At least we still have St. George.