Raging blizzard short on snow

SALT LAKE CITY — Below-freezing temperatures and an increasingly hazy sky are expected through Saturday as a high pressure system traps dirty air and temperatures.

Frozen roads that slowed freeway traffic throughout the day Wednesday and contributed to a pileup on I-215 in the afternoon are also expected to be the norm for holiday travel in the aftermath of the fast-moving blizzard that blew through northern Utah Tuesday evening.

Whether the warnings leading up to Tuesday's storm were helpful or hype depends on the point of view. Twitter and Facebook were among the social media alive with storm chatter on Tuesday.

UDOT spokesman Adan Carrillo said 3,000 people now follow UDOT on Twitter with an additional 542 on Facebook. UDOT's emergency center began sending tweets at least every 15 minutes when Tuesday's storm arrived right on schedule Tuesday afternoon.

"We got what we expected," Carillo said. "The word got out so efficiently that people were actually off the roadway to allow the plow guys to do their job more efficiently."

Tuesday's storm did not reach the limits of its forecasted potential. "The headline on today's paper should be about the weather service way overplaying yesterday's storm," said Deseret News reader Robert Gardiner, in an e-mail.

But the forecasting did what it was supposed to, said National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Seaman.

"For the public, a blizzard may mean 2 feet of snow and being hunkered down for days. But that's not exactly what a blizzard means. It means you're going to have a period of snow with very windy conditions," which is what northern Utah saw Tuesday during the afternoon commute — and on a high-travel day before Thanksgiving. "We got the word out, and we didn't have as many problems," Seaman said. Most Wasatch Front areas saw 3 to 6 inches of snow that fell with wind in the 20-30 mph range.

"The storm hit fairly hard up north. It just kind of got lighter down here south of Salt Lake and into Utah County," said Utah Highway Patrol trooper Todd Johnson. By 9 p.m. Tuesday, the UHP had responded to seven injury crashes, 88 with property damage and had reports of 116 motorists who slid off the road or needed other assistance. Two UHP vehicles were hit or damaged, though no troopers were injured, the UHP said.