Record heat, snow, rain, climate change, it’s all part of Utah’s wacky weather

It reached 79 degrees Sunday at Salt Lake City International Airport, breaking a record that had stood for 127 years.

That’s right. The last time it was this hot on this date was in 1895, when the temperature reached 76, according to the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

In fact, temperatures at Salt Lake City International Airport have broken records for three consecutive days.

Sunday will also enter the record books for Hanksville, Utah, which hit 85 degrees, eclipsing a high of 82 set in 1927.

A total of nine cities saw old temperature records broken on Sunday, while three others tied records.

The overnight low only dropped to 63 degrees, which the weather service said is 25 degrees above normal.

Spring is just over a week old, so do those high June temperatures mean it’s already over?

“No,” said Sam Webber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City. “There were instances where we saw a 20-inch snowstorm in the Cottonwoods in June.”

On Monday, the same day the weather service tweeted about the overnight high lows, it also issued an advisory for winter weather conditions in the mountains of western Uinta and southern Utah, with snow accumulations planned.

Additionally, it issued a wind advisory for western Utah on Monday evening, warning of gusts up to 45 mph for that area.

“It’s been weird,” Webber said. “Spring can be anywhere. … This week has been impressive.

Even though water managers across the state were grimacing at the high temperatures this week given Utah’s drought conditions, a storm is moving in Monday through Tuesday that will bring some relief via valley rain and some mountain snow.

Webber said temperatures would return to what is typical for this time of year, around 58 degrees.

“It won’t be cold, but it won’t be those records either,” Webber said.

He added that in the spring, it’s not unusual for the state to go through those warm spells — although last weekend was off the charts — and then cool down.

There will be a weak storm system moving in later in the week, and additional storm activity during the first part of April, he said.

While last weekend’s weather may have prompted gardeners to pull out the hoe and other tools, Webber said it was still too early for that due to the possibility of cool temperatures.

“I’m not going to plant my garden yet.”