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Winter weather contributes to several crashes Friday; snowplow catches fire at Emigration Canyon

Posted at 6:47 AM, Mar 29, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-29 17:31:36-04

UTAH -- The remnants of a storm is complicating commutes in Utah Friday morning, with heavy snowfall in the mountains overnight.

Emigration Canyon is closed to eastbound traffic after a snow plow caught on fire, and crews are responding to several weather-related crashes around the Salt Lake Valley.

The Utah Department of Transportation states ponding water is also creating problems along several major commuter routes. A traffic camera shows standing water in the area of I-15 and 3300 South in South Salt Lake. Police said the ponding forced the closure of 3300 S between 300 W and 500 W, as well as the I-15 off-ramps. The westbound lanes and the off-ramps reopened shortly after 10 a.m., and the eastbound lanes are expected to reopen by 11 a.m.

The weather is also causing delays for some passengers at Salt Lake City International Airport. Doug Flagler was flying out of the airport and said de-icing procedures caused a delay of several hours.

That delay ultimately ended up meaning the flight crew timed out, and Flagler and several other passenger slept in the airport overnight as a result.

Photo courtesy Doug Flagler.

Rain and snow are still falling in the valleys, with more accumulations possible. Precipitation is most likely in the morning and most will become rain rather than snow as temperatures warm up.

Showers are possible Friday evening but should taper off by Friday night.

The steadiest snowfall is over the Ogden and Weber Canyon areas  as of Friday morning around 6:30 a.m. The Ogden School District states all schools will operate on their normal schedule Friday, but students will not be marked tardy for weather-related delays.

Granite School District says two of their schools are without power as outages affect several thousand customers in the Salt Lake Valley, but the district expects power to be restored in time for classes and states all schools are proceeding on their normal schedules.

Rocky Mountain Power states more than 16,000 customers are affected by the outages, which they said are due to extreme weather. Crews are working to effect repairs but so far there is no ETA for a restoration of service.

The Wasatch Front, mountain valleys and southwest Wyoming could see an additional 1 to 2 inches of snow before the storm ends, while northern Utah mountains may see between 2 and 7 inches.

The storm delivered as many as 12 inches to several Utah resorts, see below for snow totals.

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