Northern Utah experiences rainiest October on record

on November 24, 2025 at 5:35 am

October did not just bring colorful leaves and costumes for Cache Valley residents but also an unprecedented amount of rain. Northern Utah just experienced one of its wettest Octobers on record, with Salt Lake City breaking a 124-year precipitation record.

Casey Olson, climate data analyst at the Utah Climate Center, kept a close eye on the rainfall while it was happening as part of his job. Each storm was more surprising than the last, and he felt as though he was constantly out at the weather station.

“October is usually a quiet month in terms of precipitation, since the weather pattern is transitioning from summertime to more wintertime type storms,” Olson said. “Man, we just got slammed with these storms back-to-back.”

According to qanr.usu.edu, Utah State University has been measuring the weather since 1893, starting with a weather station north of the C. Anthon Ernstrom Nutrition and Food Science Building. Olson shared the gauge ranked this October as one of the top 10 wettest on record.

“The big one that made all of the news was the Salt Lake airport, which broke their record for October,” Olson said. “They ended up with about five inches of rain, which is almost a season’s worth of rain in one month. Overall, it was a really good thing to see after a really dry summer.”

Kelly Kopp is a USU professor who focuses on landscape water conservation and sustainable turfgrass management. She works with many agencies that work towards achieving water use efficiency in the Intermountain West. She spoke with The Utah Statesman on how this anomalous weather will affect Utah.

“Even though most of our water comes from snowpacks, we sometimes have issues in the springtime if our soils are too dry,” Kopp said. “When we do get runoff, it will actually run off and not just get absorbed into the soil. The other really awesome thing about it was it actually helped raise the level of the Great Salt Lake.”

These facts were echoed by Olson, who explained Utah’s infrastructure is equipped to collect water from snow, not rain. When precipitation comes as rain, it runs into different areas, such as basins, then back into the atmosphere. Although the infrastructure to directly utilize the water may not be in place, it is beneficial from an agricultural standpoint.

“The drier the atmosphere is, the more likely it is that the vegetation around the state will evaporate more,” Olson said. “From that perspective, it was really awesome to have a cooler and wetter October, because it reduced the evaporative demand of the landscape.”

Despite these positive benefits, there were issues with flash floods. According to the American Red Cross of Utah, on Oct. 4, heavy rain led to flooding in Tooele County and Salt Lake City. On Oct. 6, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall declared a local emergency. As stated by Kopp, the rain did not gradually fall but came in big storms, which overwhelmed Salt Lake Valley’s infrastructure.

The U.S. Drought Monitor is run by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and offers a map of the United States and its current drought conditions. Each week, it offers a rundown of each region’s conditions.

“I moved to Utah in 2000, and I feel like we’ve been in drought more often than not,” Kopp said. “This rainfall we had in October really helped us get out of the more severe drought conditions. We’re still dry for sure, but at least we’re not in a severe drought right now.”

Despite a rainy fall, this doesn’t necessarily mean Utah is set up for a snowy winter. Olson explained that northern Utah experiences seven-year oscillations between wet and dry periods. Currently, it is at the end of a wet cycle and is expected to get back into a dryer cycle within the next couple of years.

“We’ve had a couple good years of winter accumulations, and that has helped our reservoir storage temporarily, which is really good to see,” Olson said. “There are concerns as we head into this dry cycle that we will lose some of those gains, so we’ll just have to see how it plays out this winter.”

Kopp mentioned living in Park City, in years past, she has had massive amounts of snow in her yard before Thanksgiving. That is not the case this year, which brings up concerns about climate change.

“We’re going from more snow to more rainfall. You might think, ‘Oh, rainfall, that’s great,’” Kopp said. “All of that rainfall in October, I think, represented a potential shift in how we get our precipitation. That’s kind of concerning when we don’t really have a great way to store it.”

“October is usually a quiet month in terms of precipitation, since the weather pattern is transitioning from summertime to more wintertime type storms,” Olson said. “Man, we just got slammed with these storms back-to-back.” According to qanr.usu.edu, Utah State University has been measuring the weather since 1893, starting with a weather station north of the C. Anthon Ernstrom Nutrition and Food Science Building. Olson shared the gauge ranked this October as one of the top 10 wettest on record. “The big one that made all of the news was the Salt Lake airport, which broke their record for October,” Olson said. “They ended up with about five inches of rain, which is almost a season’s worth of rain in one month. Overall, it was a really good thing to see after a really dry summer.” Kelly Kopp is a USU professor who focuses on landscape water conservation and sustainable turfgrass management. She works with many agencies that work towards achieving water use efficiency in the Intermountain West. She spoke with The Utah Statesman on how this anomalous weather will affect Utah. “Even though most of our water comes from snowpacks, we sometimes have issues in the springtime if our soils are too dry,” Kopp said. “When we do get runoff, it will actually run off and not just get absorbed into the soil. The other really awesome thing about it was it actually helped raise the level of the Great Salt Lake.” These facts were echoed by Olson, who explained Utah’s infrastructure is equipped to collect water from snow, not rain. When precipitation comes as rain, it runs into different areas, such as basins, then back into the atmosphere. Although the infrastructure to directly utilize the water may not be in place, it is beneficial from an agricultural standpoint. “The drier the atmosphere is, the more likely it is that the vegetation around the state will evaporate more,” Olson said. “From that perspective, it was really awesome to have a cooler and wetter October, because it reduced the evaporative demand of the landscape.” Despite these positive benefits, there were issues with flash floods. According to the American Red Cross of Utah, on Oct. 4, heavy rain led to flooding in Tooele County and Salt Lake City. On Oct. 6, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall declared a local emergency. As stated by Kopp, the rain did not gradually fall but came in big storms, which overwhelmed Salt Lake Valley’s infrastructure.

Northern Utah experiences rainiest October on record

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