Heavy wind gusts knock out power for 12,000 homes, close parts of highways

SALT LAKE CITY — A "rare" thunderstorm with heavy winds gusting up to 76 mph left 12,000 homes without electricity most of Sunday evening and a few thousand throughout the night as crews worked to restore power and reopen major highways by this morning.

By 10 p.m., only 8,000 homes were still without power and officials expected another 2,000 to have power restored by 11 p.m. All but 1,300 homes in Farmington were to have power by shortly after midnight and all of the city's residents were expected to have power back on by this morning.

Legacy Highway, which was closed around 4 p.m. after downed power lines closed off access, was expected to be open in both directions by 4 a.m. today, "just in time for the morning commute," Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Greg Lundell said.

Dozens of small tree and field fires sparked by the downed power lines kept fire crews hard at work and the strong gusts of wind prompted the National Weather Service to issue a strong wind advisory until 8 p.m.

Forecasters called the gusts of wind mixed in with thunderstorms a "significant" storm given that such strong wind gusts are more common in the flat plains of central Utah but rare in large metro areas.

"We don't usually see wind gusts above 70 miles per hour around here," National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Rogowski said. "It's a stronger cold front with temperatures dropping significantly."

Gusts ranging up to 76 mph that hit Centerville and Salt Lake around 3 p.m. caused serious damage at the Salt Lake International Airport and required about 10 flights into Salt Lake to be diverted. Airport officials said the diverted planes returned to Salt Lake by 9 p.m. and the airport was back on schedule.

The airport also saw serious damage to its general aviation hangar along with a number of flight delays. Debris from the damaged hangar closed an adjacent road, and the passenger-side window of an airport operations pickup truck was blown out, Rogowski said.

Cities outside of Salt Lake recorded gusts up to 50 and 60 mph. Bountiful gusts reached 64 mph and parts of Ogden were hit by 61 mph gusts.

Forecasters said the cold front was already moving into central Utah by Sunday evening but would leave the Salt Lake Valley with cooler temperatures — low 80s — until Wednesday. By Thursday, the temperatures are expected to be back in the low to mid-90s, and higher humidity is expected to hit the Salt Lake Valley again.

The high winds also shut down parts of I-80 and Legacy Parkway.