The mountains got more snow Tuesday night and early Wednesday, and some other areas got just enough rain or snow to make freeways very hazardous.
In Davis County some motorists called I-15 a skating rink. To others, it resembled a parking lot.And in south-central Utah, extremely slick conditions forced the closure for about two hours of north and southbound lanes of the freeway between Fillmore and Beaver.
A series of snow squalls that moved through Davis County Wednesday morning slickened streets and sent many commuters spinning off I-15 into ditches. Others, slowed by the accidents, found themselves in traffic jams spanning all three lanes.
Law enforcement dispatchers reported numerous accidents but said none was serious, with some motorists suffering minor injuries.
"It's hectic. I-15 is patchy, wet in spots and then it turns to ice with no warning. And motorists aren't slowing down for it," said Sgt. Dave Fluckiger of the Davis County sheriff's office.
The snow squalls began moving through the county after 5:30 a.m., putting down only a skiff of snow but hitting the south end of the county hardest during the 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. commuter time.
Sand and salt crews were hampered by the stalled traffic, especially in the Centerville-Farmington stretch of I-15, where traffic was backed up from the Centerville interchange north to Lagoon.
"Traffic, if it's moving at all, is moving at about 10 mph," a sheriff's department dispatcher reported at 8:30 a.m.
"A skiff of snow on top of a sheet of ice" was how Utah Highway Patrol dispatcher Ron Johnson described conditions at 5:10 a.m. from Fillmore to Beaver. He said a number of vehicles had either jack-knifed, slid off the highway or were straddling lanes of I-15.
The freeway was closed about 4:15 a.m. and was reopened at 6:28 a.m., after Utah Department of Transportation crews plowed and sanded some areas over about 50 miles.
Earlier, Johnson said, even patrol troopers had difficulty moving about to check on vehicles and their occupants. He said one northbound four-wheel-drive vehicle overturned and was apparently abandoned at milepost 140, situated between Baker Canyon and the Dog Valley rest area. That is about halfway between Beaver and Fillmore.
"We're assuming there were no injuries," said Johnson from the patrol's Cedar City office.
Jim Pringle of the Salt Lake office, National Weather Service, said mountain resorts, including Alta and Snowbird, will likely receive about 6 inches of snow by early Thursday. About the same amount of snow fell or was blown there by the wind by early Wednesday.
After Wednesday night most precipitation will end for Utah until Sunday and Monday, when another storm system may move into the state. But that trough is showing signs of splitting and moving around Utah.
"We think we will get some (moisture), but it's a matter of how much. The weekend (weather) models continue to show a warming trend," Pringle said.