The Weather Notebook: 1999 Weather Review: The Utah Tornado

1999 Weather Review: The Utah Tornado
Listen in RealAudio
Email Your Comments

Dave Thurlow, Host

A camera located on the roof of the William Browning Building captured the evolution of the twister.

The Mormons who first settled Utah came to the Great Basin to get away from trouble--mainly religious persecution. The desert provided them with an oasis, a placid place free of spiritual intolerance and, also, free of most earthly troubles. No earthquakes to speak of, no hurricanes, and no real tornadoes, either. Or so they thought. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook.

On August 11, 1999 Salt Lake City was hammered by a surprise twister that went right through downtown. How could this be? Well, no place in the U.S. is really immune from tornadoes. Every state has been hit at least once. But the odds are much lower west of the Rockies, because there's less of that warm, moist air on which tornadic storms thrive. But the conditions were just right on August 11 for a strong storm to move into Salt Lake.

The local weather radar didn't notice anything unusual. And neither did the many out-of-town people who were setting up tents a block long for a giant outdoor retail show. But the storm quickly spun up a twister just a couple of miles west of downtown at about 12:45 p.m. The tornado moved in and tore down the tents for the outdoor show, killing one person and injuring several dozen. If it had struck the next day, hundreds more people would have been at risk. Still, it was by far the worst tornado in Utah's history. Only eight other people had ever been hurt by twisters in Utah. And how odd it is that with all this open space in Utah that a tornado would form on this beautiful summer day, in the heart of the state's largest city, just missing the Mormon Church.

Thanks again to Bob Henson, today's contributing writer. Thanks also to Subaru and the National Science Foundation.