It reached 79 degrees Sunday at the Salt Lake City International Airport, shattering a record that had stood for 127 years.
That’s right. The last time it got even close to being that hot on that date was in 1895, when the temperature hit 76, according to the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
In fact, temperatures at the Salt Lake City International Airport broke records for three consecutive days.
Sunday will also go down in the record books for Hanksville, Utah, which reached 85 degrees, eclipsing a high of 82 set in 1927.
In total, nine cities saw old records broken for temperatures on Sunday, while another three tied records.
The overnight low only dropped to 63 degrees, which the weather service said is 25 degrees above normal.
Feel a bit warm this morning? Thanks to elevated winds and cloud cover, our overnight low at the Salt Lake City Airport was 63 degrees... a whopping 25 degrees above normal!
— NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) March 28, 2022
Spring is just barely over a week old, so do these high June-like temperatures mean it’s already over?
“No,” said Sam Webber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City. “There have been instances where we saw a 20-inch snowstorm up in the Cottonwoods in June.”
Monday, the same day the weather service was tweeting about high nighttime lows, it was also issuing an advisory for winter weather in the western Uinta and southern Utah mountains, with accumulations of snow predicted.
❄ Winter Weather Advisories in effect for the western Uinta Mountains and southern Utah mountains
— NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) March 28, 2022
⏰ This evening through Wednesday morning
⚠️5-10" of snow can be expected, locally higher. Winter driving conditions are possible on mountain routes in the area #utwx pic.twitter.com/yGio5eGDoS
In addition, it issued a wind advisory for western Utah into the evening hours Monday, warning of gusts up to 45 mph for that region.
“It has been bizarre,” Webber said. “Spring can be all over the place. ... This week has been impressive.”
Even though water managers across the state were grimacing over the high temperatures this week given Utah’s drought conditions, a storm is moving in late Monday into Tuesday that will bring some relief via valley rain and some mountain snow.
Webber said temperatures will return to what is typical for this time of year, around 58 degrees.
“It won’t be cold, but it won’t be those record highs either,” Webber said.
He added that during the spring, it is not unusual for the state to go through these warming periods — although last weekend was off the charts — and then to cool back down.
There will be a weak storm system that will move in later in the week, and additional storm activity during the first part of April, he said.
While last weekend’s weather may have been tempting for gardeners to break out the hoe and other tools, Webber said it’s still too early for that because of the possibility of chilly temperatures.
“I am not going to be planting my garden yet.”