SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) – Memorial Day weekend 36 years ago was no holiday picnic. There were record amounts of snow in the winter of 1982-83, 700 inches at Parleys Summit in fact.
Snow totals normally reached around 300 inches. That year had an especially cold May until the last week hit with temperatures reaching 90 degrees.
That heat combined with all of that snow made for a mess on State Street.
When the city’s plan of containing all that water in Parleys Canyon didn’t work, Utahn’s stepped in with a day to save the town.