Utah cities receive record rainfall for the month of October

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4) – Happy November, friends! We’ve talked about our historic drought for months and months, and even now, 14% of the state is still facing “exceptional drought” conditions, which is the highest category on the U.S. Drought monitor.

The Beehive State though, has received a glimmer of hope as several storms delivered copious amounts of rain in the month of October. To close out the month, Salt Lake City totaled 3.49″ of rain. The average rainfall for the month of October in Salt Lake is 1.26″ so this month, we more than doubled the average with the help of an atmospheric river delivering heavy rain.

The healthy total has landed October 2021 as the sixth wettest October on record in Salt Lake City and is an abundance of moisture in comparison to October 2020, when Salt Lake only received 0.28″ of rain for the month. In total, Salt Lake has 13 days of measurable moisture for the month but our overall average temperature came in slightly below normal at 52.3 degrees.

October #SLC Breakdown: Below average for avg. temp, below average for snow w/ only a trace, but way above average for rain. We hit avg. & then put 2.23" more in the bank!

13 days of measurable moisture & 3 days with a trace–now, let's keep November on the soggy side! #utwx pic.twitter.com/VqfL2PmhYj

— Alana Brophy (@AlanaBrophyNews) November 2, 2021

We received a trace of snow in SLC, but typically, we see half an inch. This October, snow stuck to the high country but several storms brought accumulating snow above 7,000 feet. 

Several other Utah cities hit the record books making the top ten list for wettest Octobers as well. The Bountiful Bench picked up 4.65″ of rain marking the 3rd wettest October, Spanish Fork received 4.78″ and came in fourth place overall, Alta Ski Resort picked up 7.96″ of precipitation marking the seventh wettest October, Richmond got 4.41″ and the sixth wettest October, Zion National Park received 3.13″ marking the seventh wettest October overall, Randolph picked up 2.17″ hitting the second wettest October and Tooele received 3.82″ putting October 2021 in eighth place overall. Records are kept with the National Weather Service and date back to 1874, when record-keeping started. 

A quick-moving storm will kick off November, with valley rain and mountain snow Monday night through Tuesday afternoon. An active pattern is very helpful when it comes to Utah’s water woes, and let’s have a few more months like October to aid our reservoir storage. 

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