Storm brings good, bad, ugly

Snow, ice and crashes resulted from a small storm that tiptoed into northern Utah early Wednesday. But so did bright blue skies.

The front "dropped anywhere from a trace to 4 inches of snow," said Len Randolph, KSL meteorologist. Farmington residents shoveled the most, at 4 inches, while only 0.3 of an inch was recorded at the Salt Lake International Airport.

Typically, from 1 to 3 inches fell throughout the northern part of the state, he said. But another storm is expected to arrive piecemeal late today.

The storm complicated the morning rush hour as vehicles crept along city streets and freeways — or slammed into one another. More than 100 accidents were reported in Salt Lake and Davis counties alone.

Counting only vehicles damaged on Salt Lake County freeways in the period 5:30 to 9:30 a.m., the Utah Highway Patrol responded to 59 accidents. Two other accidents resulted in minor injuries.

Besides those, 11 vehicles slid off the county's roads without damage or injury.

In Davis County, the Utah Highway Patrol answered 10 freeway accidents with damage, plus three slide-offs. Three damage accidents were reported in Utah County Wednesday morning and another that resulted in a minor injury.

Off the freeway, streets weren't much better.

The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office responded to 10 accidents between 5:30 and 10:30 a.m. Between midnight and 10:15 a.m., the Salt Lake City Police Department was called to 20 accidents, one of which resulted in a minor injury.

On a more cheerful note, the storm cleared out the foul air that had sickened northern Utahns for weeks. In the morning, PM2.5 pollution levels in Salt Lake, Davis, Utah, Weber and Cache counties were so high that the "red" air alerts continued in effect and the air was pronounced "unhealthy."

But by afternoon, the storm had cleared away enough gunk that the official designation for those areas was "green." Wood and coal burning are prohibited on "red" days, the public is asked to refrain from burning those substances on "yellow" alert periods, while the restrictions are lifted on "green" days.

Today's snowstorm is expected to show up in two sections, the first in the afternoon and the other at night.

"That'll give us some more snow, and then we'll have to deal with that on the morning commute," Randolph said on Wednesday.

A high pressure region will return for the weekend and "the haze will come back," he said. "We're not done with it."

Friday is expected to be a cold day, but temperatures should rise on the weekend.

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