Utah’s capital city will likely break several city weather records by the time December ends from its string of warmth this past week, but there’s one longstanding record it won’t break.
Salt Lake City received at least 0.1 inches of graupel, a soft and wet form of snow, marking its first official measurable snow of the season, according to the National Weather Service. It helps the city avoid its latest first snow, which dates all the way back to the 1890-1891 snow season.
Most of the precipitation that fell at the city’s official recording site still fell as rain, but several Utah resorts reported receiving at least a half-foot of snow by Saturday afternoon. Slightly higher valley snow accumulations were found in other parts of the Wasatch Front.
Salt Lake City’s lack of snowfall is symbolic of what’s happening across the state, causing initial concerns, ranging from delayed ski resort openings or events being pulled from the state, and potential water supply impacts because of the low statewide mountain snowpack.
It turns out there’s similiarities to the city record that remains intact almost 135 years later.
Salt Lakers embraced the first snow of the 1890-1891 season, acknowledging it was odd to go without snow past New Year’s, which was the case that season. The city received 0.3 inches on Jan. 2, 1891, according to National Weather Service data, which remains the only time Salt Lake City failed to collect any snow before New Year’s Day in the 151 years since the agency began keeping records.
It came as the mountains were “bare,” and amid concerns that any future snow that season might be of “very little value as it will not remain for next summer’s use,” the Salt Lake Herald reported at the time. This seems to indicate that residents were concerned about the snowpack, as the newspaper added that the low snow levels may not help the “certainty of a short water supply” that existed.
Official mountain snowpack measurements hadn’t started in Utah yet, which now helps forecast state water supply outlooks, but Salt Lake City’s 1888-1889 winter snow collection remains the third-lowest since 1874, possibly indicating drought effects in the area.
The weather was also “too balmy for mid-winter,” creating an “unnatural and therefore unhealthful condition that confronted us,” the Salt Lake Times noted, as well.
“We therefore welcome the advent of the first snowstorm with pleasure and hope that the flakes may continue falling now or at frequent intervals until the air is purified of germs and earth is saturated with moisture,” the old newspaper reported, following the first snowfall that season.
The outlet reported that conditions were warm enough that violets were growing in the front yard of one resident’s home the day before, similar to the scenes of early flowering and blossoms seen in the valley this month.
Even though Utah’s first ski resort wouldn’t open until several decades later, in the 1930s, newspapers also reported that people were delighted by the snow’s arrival for other recreation opportunities.
“(N)ow that winter has made its first appearance and the sky is still overcast with dense cumulus, we hope ... it may not be too modest to stay with us awhile, affording us at the same time a brief season of sleighing,” the Salt Lake Times added.
That ultimately didn’t happen for the city, at least. Records show that it only received a little over 18 inches of snow, which is still among its least snowy seasons on record. But it did receive 4.66 inches of precipitation in March, which also remains a city record all these years later.
The 1890-1891 record is probably one that modern-day water managers and snow recreation enthusiasts hope never gets broken, but, as drought lingers in the state, moisture later in the water year is something that would be beneficial if history repeats itself.