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I am working on my weather merit badge for boy scouts. I was wondering what type of weather is most dangerous or damaging to northern Utah. Also what kind of sever weather and flood warnings do we have in our state. Thank you Benjamin C.
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My name is Hayden Nielson I live in Davis County I am working on the weather merit badge. I have to find out what type of weather is most dangerous or damaging to my community and determine how severe weather and flood warnings reach the homes in my community. Can you help me find out this information? Thank you, Hayden N
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Great questions from the scouts! It depends on what you call dangerous. The most deadly weather in Utah is Lightning, nation wide it's flooding.
From 1990 to 2003 22 people have lost their lives in Utah which may not seem like a lot but it is. When you weigh that in vs. our population, we're actually ranked number 2 for lightning deaths in the US!
We have all types of warnings in our state just like all the others. Some warnings that we probably have more of are winter storm warnings versus other states in the south.
Warnings are issued when a storm or winter event is severe enough to warrant one. For severe thunderstorms, the storms must either have 58 mph winds or 3/4 inch hail. You can find the different criteria for some warnings on the link on the right.
The warnings come from the National Weather Service which is a part of our goverment. The NWS has lots of forecasters who are constantly working on weather and monitoring conditions. You can get warnings either directly from them on their website, have a NOAA weather radio, or on television or regular radio.
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman.
