Flooding impacts Utah one last time to close out meteorological summer

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's meteorological summer ended on a wet note Monday, with several inches of rain falling in some areas, creating localized flooding.

Multiple flash flood warnings, flood advisories and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued from the morning through the evening. The last remaining warnings, each in southern Utah, were scheduled to expire before the end of the day.

The National Weather Service had issued flood watches spanning from Heber City and Nephi to St. George and Lake Powell, but those have since expired.

Flash flooding was reported at Zion National Park shortly after 1:30 p.m. A gauge at the North Fork of the Virgin River at Springdale spiked to 5,920 cubic feet per second, its fifth-highest peak on record for the gauge, the agency noted.

Water height at one of the U.S. Geological Survey sites in the area jumped from 7 feet to 14 feet — its highest point in at least the past year — within an hour. It dropped back to 8 feet by the evening.

Zion National Park officials warned visitors to prepare for intermittent closures from heavy rains, flooding and debris on Monday, but no severe damage was immediately reported within the park.

However, flooding impacted the community around it. Angelea and Jacob Glazier sent KSL photos and videos of the flooding that reached their home, following flooding that impacted the town.

Other streams, creeks and rivers in the state also reported large spikes when storms formed over them, the weather service added.

A storm dumped over the two-year-old Silver King burn scar near Marysvale, Piute County, creating a debris flow in the Deer Creek drainage that washed out several road crossings, according to Piute County Emergency Management.

The storms formed after tropical, monsoonal moisture fused with a low-pressure system over Arizona, said KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson. The system moved north into Utah, where it will merge with a low-pressure system moving in from California.

"(When) you clash low pressure and tropical moisture, you're getting activity," he said.

Scattered storms were reported all across the state. Some additional moisture is possible again on Tuesday as the system moves out, but drier conditions are forecast throughout the state for most of the rest of the workweek.

A wet end to summer

Monday's storms follow an active weekend across the drought-stricken state. Many communities across Utah received more than an inch over the weekend. Huntington, Emery County, received nearly 2.4 inches, leading all recorded communities in weekend precipitation.

However, storms also produced severe weather, including damaging winds and hail, as well as flooding, especially in central Utah. U.S. 6 was briefly closed on Sunday at Indian Canyon because of mudslides, but it reopened late in the day.

The storms all but secured this summer as being wetter than normal across most Utah regions. Salt Lake City, for example, entered the final day of the meteorological season with 2.57 inches of rain, exceeding its normal of 2 inches. Over 90% of its summer collection fell after July 20, past the season's midway point.

Similar stories played out elsewhere. Utah's statewide mountain sites collected, on average, 5.3 inches between June 1 and Sunday, 1.1 inches above their normal for the season. Monday's storms bumped the average up by at least 0.2 inches, per Natural Resources Conservation Service data.

Statewide soil moisture levels at the same mountain sites are now, on average, well above normal to close out summer. Over 90% of the state remained in at least severe drought, including over 40% in the U.S. Drought Monitor's extreme or exceptional categories, before the latest active pattern.

More tropical moisture is projected to reach the state by the Labor Day weekend, Johnson said. It means Utah's meteorological fall could pick up where summer left off.

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