Rain!

After 33 consecutive days without measurable precipitation, the Salt Lake City International Airport recorded 0.05" of rainfall yesterday.

Hooray!

"Yesterday", however, is defined as the standard-time calendar day.  The reality is that the airport received no measurable precipitation during the day yesterday and the .05" actually fell at just before midnight last night standard time.

It appears another .02" fell after midnight and will count toward the total for May 21.

Two days in a row of measurable rain.  Will miracles never cease?

Some preliminary precipitation reports through yesterday evening are below and show up to 0.19" in the Salt Lake Valley through 7 PM.  That observation was from our mountain meteorology lab facility at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon on the University of Utah campus.

Source: NWS

Overnight rain brought the total at that site to 0.25".  I wish it was more, but that's better than nothing.

For the Salt Lake Valley, it looks like this event is over.  We may see a stray shower this morning, but skies should clear this afternoon.

The good news is that we have another shot at rain Friday evening and night as a bonafide cold front pushes through.  The NAM forecast below is valid at 3 AM MDT (0900 UTC) Saturday and shows widespread precipitation along the Wasatch Front with a sharp temperature contrast indicative of the front between southeast and northwest Utah. 

As Eric Clapton said, "let it rain, rain rain..."