It started raining in St. George on Tuesday night!
Normally, that sentence wouldn’t include an exclamation point. But it was the first time the city got any measurable precipitation in 154 days — the longest dry stretch since record-keeping began in 1893. And it was more than a month longer than the previous record of 121 days, set in 1929.
And St. George is piling a second weather record on top of the first. After five months without any rain, the city broke its record for the most precipitation in a single day during the month of November with 1.29 inches. The old record for Nov. 20 in St. George was .2 inches, set in 1905.
That’s the most the city has ever received, too, in a single day since July 25, 2017, according to the National Weather Service.
In fact, it’s raining so much in southern Utah that now there are concerns about flooding.
The weather service issued a flash flood watch through Wednesday evening and a winter storm warning that remains in effect through 4 p.m. Thursday.
The slow-moving storm is going to keep southern Utah wet for a couple of days. According to the NWS, valley rain will total between half an inch and 1.5 inches, and the mountains above 7,000 feet will get 1-2 feet of snow through Thursday.
On Wednesday, Zion National Park received .71 inches of rain; Enterprise 1.08 inches; and Jensen Spring 1.05 inches. The Lava Point Raws station near Springdale received 1.46 inches of rain at its location at 7,890 feet.
Cedar City set a record for the most rain ever on Nov. 19 — .45 inches fell before midnight, beating the old record of .32 inches set in 1979. By Wednesday morning, that total was up to .89 inches.
The NWS warned that the overnight rains in southwest Utah are causing “rapid rises in numerous waterways in Washington County. Flows along the Virgin/Santa Clara rivers are trending upward, as are many washes in the St. George area as runoff moves into the lower elevations.”
The NWS issued a flash flood warning for Zion National Park, which closed the Narrows and all routes that exit through it on Wednesday morning when the North Fork of the Virgin River exceeded 150 cubic feet per second. It will reopen when the CFS falls below 150 for two consecutive hours.
Northern Utah can also expect a couple of days of rain and snow. In the Salt Lake City area, there’s a 40% chance of snow on Thursday. And the unseasonably warm weather is gone — the forecast high on Wednesday had an overnight low of 37; the forecast high on Thursday is 37, with an overnight low of 28.
The precipitation is expected to end Thursday, though, with a mix of sun and clouds Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But it may start snowing again after 11 p.m. on Sunday, and that chance continues through Tuesday, with highs in the 30s and lows in the 20s.
The Utah Highway Patrol warned of hazardous driving conditions Wednesday, saying wet pavement contributed to four rollovers of tractor-trailer rigs on major highways. It responded to 84 crashes throughout the day.
