PHOTOS: Heavy rainfall causes flooding in much of Davis County


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FARMINGTON — Several parking lots, roads and other parts of northern Davis County were submerged in standing water Monday afternoon as heavy rains pounded the area.

Motorists encountered about a foot of water and some mud debris under the freeway overpass at Hill Field Road in Layton, while shoppers found much of the parking lot submerged at Station Park in Farmington.

Several people took to riding kayaks or canoes in a swamped soccer field at Davis High School and a flooded baseball diamond next to Davis Applied Technical College. Parts of Oakridge Golf Course in Farmington and a Fresh Market grocery store parking lot in Kaysville were also flooded.

Rainfall totals exceeded 3 inches in Fruit Heights by late afternoon Monday. Layton saw 2.3 inches by that time, and 2.06 inches were recorded in South Ogden, 1.82 inches in South Ogden, and 1.66 in Farmington. Hill Air Force Base reported about 1.3 inches of rain.

Much of Utah's precipitation this summer is part of a large, wet weather pattern that is coming from the southwest and also affecting Arizona, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brian McInerney.

"A lot of what we're seeing is the function of decaying hurricanes off the Baja coast," McInerney said.

A few mountainous areas throughout the state have also seen multiple inches of rainfall this week.

"But where the people live, Davis County is definitely getting the most rainfall," McInerney said.

Salt Lake City recorded nearly a half-inch of rain by Monday afternoon, while Springville, the precipitation hot spot in Utah County, received 1.28 inches.

Potential flooding damage aside, the substantial rain will aid water conservation in the state, McInerney said.

"People aren't going to use sprinklers. They're going to use rainwater," he said. "It's going to take the (strain) off of reservoirs, which aren't doing very well."

The state's mountain snowpack and ensuing water runoff has suffered despite an exceptionally wet May and precipitation totals in July that were about double the average amounts, according to McInerney.

"When you talk about the winter, the big story was the heat," he said. "We were trying to build a snowpack, and it kept melting whatever … snow we did have."

Northern Utah residents experienced the hottest February and March in recorded history earlier this year, according to data gathered by the National Weather Service.

June's average temperature in northern Utah was also the highest ever. For the first time since meteorologists began recording temperature data in Salt Lake City in 1874, the average high temperature in June (90.4 degrees) exceeded the daily highs in July (89.3 degrees).

More rain than usual in July contributed to more moderate average temperatures.

Contributing: Andrew Adams, Nicole Vowell

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