I-80’s mile marker 140 at Summit Park is a meatgrinder.
Thursday night four separate accidents landed three people in the hospital and eastbound lanes shut down for hours. Then, a few hours later: westbound crash. The right lane closed for an hour early Friday morning.
Then, 7:30 a.m.: eastbound I-80 saw multiple crashes closing all three lanes again. All of this was in and around Summit Park.
For anyone lucky enough to get to Jeremy Ranch, vehicles got buried in a roundabout there, backing up traffic on the side roads too.
As the snow continues to pile up most people are at their wits end…but not all.
“I slept in, which is nice, because I haven’t gotten to do that in a while,” said Sydney, a fifth grader at Jeremy Ranch Elementary. “And then I have just been chilling for the rest of the day.”
Jeremy Ranch Elementary, like all of Park City School District and private schools, closed Friday. Sydney said a lot of her friends were pretty excited, but even snow days aren’t always perfect.
“We were going to have a party at school today,” Sydney said, “but that'll most likely just get rescheduled.”
Frustration or exhaustion are the more common feelings among residents. Abby Carroll is a local who lives in Trailside.
She took her two kids, 11 months and three years old, down to Salt Lake City Thursday to meet their dad at Sugarhouse Park after work. When they came back up Parleys Canyon that evening, the family got stuck behind those four accidents for over two hours.
“When we were coming up the canyon, there was no snow, and it wasn't expected until eight,” Carroll said. “So I think a lot of people thought they were sort of safe going at seven—and then to be stuck there for two and a half hours.”
Jim Steenburgh is an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Utah, but on Twitter, he’s better known as Professor Powder. He says canyons in the Wasatch Mountains get so bad in large part because of the altitude.
That’s true in Parleys; it’s more true in the Cottonwoods, both of which were closed Friday morning.
While Parleys’ eastbound traffic was stopped Thursday night, heavy snow rolled in and many motorists found themselves outside cleaning off their windows.
Carroll said the snow accumulation caused many cars to spin out once the highway finally reopened.
“There was an old woman next to me that had to go to the bathroom, and they knocked on my window and asked me to turn the other way,” she said.
Another guy’s transmission blew, so he just walked away. Carroll said she considered it.
Steenburgh runs a blog called Wasatch Weather Weenies, which discusses all things climate in the area. Friday’s post was headlined simply: “We Need This to Stop.”
“We're in record territory now for snowfall for the season. We have a tremendous snowpack,” Steenburgh said. “But also we've added about 10 inches of water to the snowpack in the last two weeks, so my comments are in part due to the fact that that's just a lot of snow to deal with.”
In the near future, he anticipates a significant runoff once things warm up and recommended looking out for kids and pets near rushing water.
Right now, plow crews are doing the best with what they have around the clock, a Summit County spokesperson said.
“The snowplow situation changes daily and remains fluid,” they said. For example, there were a couple extra plows out Friday but a couple fewer four-wheel drivers, which changes coverage.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has stations around Utah keeping tabs on snowfall, SNOTEL stations. Parleys Summit recorded 11 inches of snowfall the past four days, but that doesn’t include data from March 31 yet.
And the snow water equivalent, another way of measuring the snow that sticks, is pushing 28 inches statewide. And it’s not stopping. More snow starts Sunday: this year it’s forever winter.
