Utah is experiencing one of its warmest, driest starts to winter on record — a trend meteorologists said reflects a broader warming pattern across much of the western United States.
What’s happening?
December data from the National Weather Service showed that Park City received less than 3 inches of snow. Temperatures more closely resembled spring than winter, KPCW reported near the end of the month. It followed a rainy October, the state’s wettest since the earliest documented precipitation records.
NWS meteorologist Brittany Whitlam said that the state’s winter season has become warmer since weather stations started tracking temperatures in 1992. “We have seen an overall upward trend in temperature, pretty much across the entire West,” Whitlam remarked, per KPCW.
Although predicted storms offered hope for increased snow and more snow did eventually make an appearance, late and minimal snowfall has become a disturbing trend across U.S. mountain states…