Winter Storm Echo and Temple Square

Lets talk geography for a minute.  

Salt Lake City sits in a valley, surrounded by two large mountain ranges.  You have the Wasatch Mountains to the East, and the Oquirrh Mountains (pronounced Oaker) to the West.  

Salt Lake City lies at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, in an area called the Wasatch Front.  Salt Lake City sits at an elevation around 4,000' and the Wasatch Mountains rise 6,000' above the valley floor.  In the late fall, you can start to see these two mountain ranges turn form a deep brown to a dusting of white.  Often times, it is a beautiful sunny day in the city while Snowbird reports over a foot of fresh snow.  Because of the colder temperatures in the mountain due to the elevaton change, and the urban heat island effect of the city, the mountains get a ton of snow while the city gets a dusting.  It is really the perfect balance of snow where you want it (on the ski slopes), and no snow in the city (on your commute).  If it does snow it is usually melted within hours.  

This week, things were a little different.  While the snow piled up in the mountains, it also dumped in the city.  It started snowing Monday and was on and off all the way until Thursday morning.  Not a dusting here, more like over a foot in some places of the city. 

Utah Snow Summary WeatherChannel.com:

Up to 22 inches of snow fell in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, with officially 9.5 inches at Salt Lake City International Airport Sunday through Tuesday. The top total in the Salt Lake Valley was 22.2 inches in Sandy as of Tuesday evening.

 By contrast, last season brought the second-lowest seasonal snowfall total on record in the Utah capital, with only 15.4 inches total.  

To the north of Salt Lake City, Bountiful reported 28.4 inches in the benches, the local term for areas a few hundred feet above the valley floor along the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains. In the mountains themselves, 31 inches of snow fell at Snowbird (elevation 8,100) feet, and up to 29 inches fell on the Alta area.

As you can see, the city got some snow.  So living downtown, we took full advantage of going out to play in a white snowy city.  

Tree in our Apartment Complex

Every year, Temple Square turns into a beautiful festive Christmas treasure, where thousands of lights decorate the property.  Every color, everywhere.  There is also a large nativity scene in the lawn in Temple Square.  While we have been to Temple Square to see the lights many times, we haven't seen them with a fresh dusting of snow.  The snow means the square is nearly empty of all the tourists (we call lighters, the Christmas Utah substitute for New England leafers).  The holiday lights and all the snow in Temple Square were the perfect winter wonderland. 

Lights at Temple Square 

Lights at Temple Square

  

Lights at Temple Square

Lights at Temple Square

Lights at Temple Square

Nativity Scene at Temple Square 

Lights at Temple Square

   

City Creek Mall was also much less crowded than usual, which meant we could sneak into the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to drool in front of the display cases.  I had my eye on the Pecan Pie Caramel Apple, to the tune of 9$.  Insanely expensive but one of the best deserts I have ever eaten.  They even sliced the apple for you to make for easy eating.  Candied pecan, icing, pie spices, caramel... it was absolutely heaven.  Naturally we ate it in front of the Apple Store.  

We are in the Holiday Spirit here in Salt Lake City.

How about you?