Snowstorm ends lengthy snow droughts, wreaks havoc on roadways

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A snowstorm, the first of the season for many places, began moving across the western and central parts of the United States Thursday into Friday, ending multiple cities' major snow droughts and triggering traffic delays and mayhem on numerous roadways.

The quick-developing storm across the West dropped as much as 6 inches of snow in Lake Tahoe before delivering on the promise of snow in areas around the Wasatch Range in Utah and Colorado Rockies. Salt Lake City recorded its first measurable snowfall since March 25, snapping a 259-day streak late Thursday afternoon as a total of 1.4 inches of accumulation was measured at Salt Lake International Airport.

Denver also snapped its near-record-long snow drought on Friday, recording at least 0.3 inches of snow for the first time since late April. This streak, lasting from April 22 to Dec. 9, ended up tying for the longest snowless streak on record for the city at 232 days. Plus, with the first recording of measurable snow, the city has officially reset its record for the latest first snowfall of the season, which previously stood at Nov. 21, 1934.

On Thursday, AccuWeather national reporter Tony Laubach said that in his "entire weatherman-ing career, I have never spent so much time covering no snow." Laubach and snow lovers in Denver can now collectively breathe a sigh of wintry relief, as their city joins the ranks of Colorado areas on the receiving end of wintry precipitation this week.

By Friday, the heaviest snow was falling across parts of northeastern Colorado, South Dakota and into southwestern Minnesota as the storm moved east. One observer in Murdo, S.D., reported 7.4 inches of snowfall as of Friday morning. Meanwhile, Hot Springs, S.D., saw about 20 inches fall on Friday.

In Utah, in places where accumulations were not that impressive, there was enough snowfall to cause about 200 traffic accidents on Thursday alone, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Authorities posted a video on Twitter showing a car losing control on a slippery highway in Utah and sliding across three lanes of traffic then back to the lane it was originally driving in before crashing with a vehicle behind it. "This is what driving too fast for conditions looks like," Utah police said in the post.

Drivers in Salt Lake City struggled in the return of the slippery precipitation, particularly on I-215, where a crash involving a semi-truck and a tractor-trailer caused tremendous traffic backups. Photos of the crash's aftermath show the damaged semi-truck lying across the nearby highway barrier, leaking out diesel fuel that required a lengthy cleanup.

Elsewhere on the same interstate, a separate car fire led to even more headaches.

And in places where vehicles didn't crash, traffic crawled to a stop as driving conditions worsened on Thursday. Big rigs were backed up on I-80 in Evanston, Wyo., on Thursday as the storm began to pick up.

The relatively light snow accumulations in Salt Lake City were enough to break the city's fourth-longest snow drought and good enough to rank as the fifth-latest first snow of the season on record. Other places in Utah recorded far more impressive snowfall totals. Residents in multiple areas surrounding Salt Lake City awoke to walls of long-awaited snow, including those in many mountainous spots that received 12 inches.

Brighton, Utah, picked up 24 inches of snow as of Friday morning, and Alta, Utah, had recorded 19 inches of fresh powder from the storm.

Elsewhere in the region, that waiting for snow ended, particularly in high-elevation areas. The mountains surrounding Denver received their fair share of snowfall, with most stations recording between 4 and 8 inches. The day's highest snow total came from a recording atop Mount Zirkel in Colorado, which had 15.8 inches by the end of Thursday.

In Colorado, Laubach said, the snow that areas did receive was badly needed for a long time, particularly after drought conditions worsened in the fall.

"The good news, some of those folks may be picking up another 1 to 2 feet by the time this is all said and done," Labauch added. "It is so badly needed. The snowpack up there desperately needed a storm like this."

As the storm moved northeastward, more than a foot of snow fell in multiple areas of South Dakota, including a high of 15 inches in Hot Springs, in the southwestern part of the state near Black Hills National Forest. As the snow fell in unison with dangerously gusty winds, the South Dakota Highway Patrol urged drivers to stay off the road unless necessary.

AccuWeather forecasters say that the snow won't be sticking around in many places as a dramatic December warmup is on the way next week.