After all the flakes were in and the measurements were done, the National Weather Service late Wednesday proudly declared it a winner: Feb. 24-25 was the snowiest 24 hours ever recorded in Salt Lake City.
"I promise you, we didn't fudge," meteorologist-in-charge William J. Alder said after finding an inch more of snow than was originally tallied at the Salt Lake International Airport.The final calculation shows that from 8:17 a.m. Tuesday to 8:17 a.m. Wednesday, 18.9 inches of snow fell at the airport. The previous 24-hour record was 18.4 inches on Oct. 17-18, 1984.
The storm, which paralyzed the Wednesday morning commute and shut down the airport for 61/2 hours, also accounts for nearly half the snowfall for the entire winter of 1997-98.
Before Sunday, Salt Lake City had seen only 21.1 inches of snow. Since Sunday, 20.4 inches has fallen. That makes the three-day storm total - start to finish - the third greatest. The record-holder in that category is 23.3 inches during the four-day period of Jan. 6-10, 1993.
Combined with all the rain showers during the past month, the storm made February 1998 the wettest winter month ever. Alder said the airport has measured 4.53 inches of water this month, "clobbering" the old record of 4.37 inches in December 1983. Yes, December 1983 was the start of the great flood era of 1983-84, but Alder says it's too early to talk about possible flood scenarios this year.
The storm also dumped copious amounts of snow on the Wasatch Front ski resorts, providing a soft powder cushion up to 4 feet deep for novice skiers - including President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton - who tend to tumble.
The Clintons are scheduled to be in Park City through the weekend for a skiing holiday with their daughter, Chelsea, who celebrates her 18th birthday Friday. Park City has had more than 40 inches of snow since Sunday, giving it a base of 105 inches.
But pointing to the mountainous snow totals in the western valley locations, Alder said, "Chelsea could ski at the airport."
The storm tapered off Wednesday afternoon, giving skiers a chance to reach the powder in the Cottonwood canyons, which had been closed much of the day. Solitude rewarded those who waited with an hour of free skiing on 30 inches of new powder.
At Alta, this week's snow may break another record. So far this month, 145 inches of snow has fallen at the Little Cottonwood Canyon town. The February record of 155 inches was set in 1960. Alder says the old record may fall Thursday. "We expect another 8 to 10 inches today," he said.
While Salt Lake-area commuters enjoyed a respite Thursday morning, those in Davis and Weber counties were not as lucky. Some areas in the two counties were hit with as much as 5 inches of new snow overnight with heavy snowfall continuing through the morning. Traffic conditions were described as difficult at best through the morning commute.
For the Utah Highway Patrol, Wednesday was almost a repeat of Tuesday. Both days troopers responded to more than 300 calls for service and about 60 accidents that required traffic control, said UHP spokesman Verdi White II.
"Last night was bad for slide-offs," White said. "As soon as the sun went down the structures iced over . . . I don't know the exact number of slide-offs, but we had a lot of them."
Thursday morning, comparatively speaking, he said "was great."
"I think we did pretty well - until now," White said referring to the clouds that began sprinkling snow over the downtown area about 8:30 a.m. Thursday. "So, we'll see."
As hard-hit communities began to dig out, local fire departments asked for help from resi-dents in clearing the snow away from buried fire hydrants.
"You could save a life," Sandy Fire Chief Don Chase said, pointing to several fires Wednesday where firefighters had difficulty finding hydrants.
Looking ahead, Alder said snow showers will continue in northern Utah for the next couple of days and then probably clear out for the weekend.
However, he added one ominous note: March 2 (Monday) is the wettest day of the year. Historically, the airport has recorded precipitation on that date 50 percent of the time.