Winter was cold but no record-setter
According to Mike Seaman, a meteorologist with the Salt Lake office of the National Weather Service, the airport had received 73.5 inches of snowfall as of March 3 for the current water year.
"That's somewhat snowier and colder than normal, but by no means a record," he said. "It's possible we can add to it," because the water year is calculated from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
The winter of 2003-2004 had 77.5 inches of snowfall and even the 2001-2002 winter had 73.5 inches of snow. They were the most recent years with as much or more snowfall.
The all-time snowiest year was 1951-52, when the airport received 117.3 inches of snow. (The 1983-84 season had 98 inches of snow and 1984-85 produced 72.7 inches.)
Seaman agreed that it was that period in late December and January of this past winter, where it seemed to snow every day, that leaves the lasting impression in people's minds of being worse than it was.
Also, the fact that we've had drier winters for the past four years spoiled us and made us lose perspective, he said.
So, late December, January and February were snowy, but then came March, which was below normal. March had 8.3 inches of snowfall and 1.34 inches of moisture, as compared to the respective averages of 9.2 inches and 1.91 inches.
Temperatures this past winter were indeed colder than normal, with a 28 degree mean temperature. But that's not in the top 10 of cold for the past 79 years that records have been kept at the airport, according to Seaman.
Normal is 31.3 degrees and the all-time record was 19.5 degrees, back in the winter of 1932-33.
March was also colder than average with a 40.4 degree mean reading, 2.7 degrees below normal.
What's ahead? Seaman said long-range predictions are that Salt Lake will likely have above normal temperatures for the next three months and slightly below normal precipitation.
Last November's average mean temperature was 2.3 degrees above normal and the Salt Lake Airport received just 0.26 inches of snowfall that month — only 10 percent of normal.
Enter December and it was a different matter. That month ended up as the fourth wettest December on record for the airport, with 3.35 inches of precipitation and 29.8 inches of snow, 244 percent of normal.
The record December for wet was 1983, with 4.37 inches of moisture.
There were also three avalanche fatalities in Utah in the final eight days of 2007. That made the calendar year the deadliest for avalanches with seven total deaths — the most since deaths began being tracked in 1958.
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