Streets slippery but not deadly

It was a sloppy but mostly safe Christmas on roads along the Wasatch Front.

Slick road conditions had emergency crews and tow trucks cleaning up dozens of accidents Tuesday, but no fatalities were reported, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Monday night's snowstorm brought several inches of snow to the Wasatch Front, which transformed into patches of black ice on the roads Tuesday.

"They've just been steady all day long," said UHP trooper Cameron Roden.

Crews were busy with vehicles losing control and sliding off roads. Just after 10 a.m., I-15 northbound was shut down for about two hours near 650 North in Clearfield due to a 15-vehicle pileup.

Roden said the driver of a pickup truck lost control when he hit a patch of black ice and spun out in an area where the view of oncoming motorists was obstructed, setting off a chain of accidents.

"People just started spinning out and bouncing off each other," Roden said.

Weather and speed were factors, troopers said. No one was reported killed, and only one motorist was transported to a local hospital. The motorist's condition was not available Tuesday.

One UHP trooper's vehicle was damaged when a vehicle lost control and collided with it near Clearfield. Roden said the trooper was assisting other accident victims and was not in the vehicle at the time.

In Salt Lake County, UHP reported more than 100 non-injury crashes with six more accidents with minor injuries over Christmas Eve night and through Christmas Day.

Salt Lake City police said as many as 100 motorists got stuck Tuesday on 1300 East near Sugar House Park as a result of icy roads, though no accidents were reported.

As of 6 p.m., snowfall in cities across most of the Wasatch Front totaled as much as 8 inches on the benches and between 4 and 6 inches in the valleys.

Ski resorts saw plenty of new snow, with Alta getting 20 inches, Snowbird 18 inches and The Canyons 11 inches, according to the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

A winter storm warning is in effect from this morning through Thursday morning all along the Wasatch Front, NWS officials said. Snow is possible in the morning and likely in the afternoon, with an expected accumulation of 4 to 7 inches on the benches and 1 to 4 inches in the valleys.

It will also be a chilly day, with expected highs in the mid-20s, according to the NWS.

Another 1 to 3 inches of snow is likely to fall after midnight tonight.

According to KSL-TV meteorologist Dan Pope, the recent storms have boosted the snowpack in northern Utah from about 30 percent of normal at the beginning of December to nearly 100 percent.

Another storm today and two more storms expected before the end of the month likely will bring the snowpack to above normal, Pope said.

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