A fast-moving storm brewing in the southwestern United States dumped up to a half a foot of snow on parts of Utah on Wednesday and threatened Wyoming and Colorado with heavy snow. Utah's higher elevations got 6 inches of snow before skies cleared Wednesday afternoon. Salt Lake City received 3 inches of snow in six hours; in Utah's western desert, Tooele got 5 inches. Snow advisories were issued through Thursday morning for southwest Utah and the northern and central mountains of Colorado, where up to 8 inches was expected. A winter storm watch also was posted for south-central and southeastern Wyoming, where up to 10 inches of snow was forecast. Farther south, showers and thunderstorms developed along a stationary front extending from Texas' lower Rio Grande Valley across Louisiana into Mississippi. The eastern United States continued to enjoy unseasonably warm weather, with highs in the 70s from the central and eastern Gulf Coast to the Middle Atlantic States. Heavier rainfall totals for the six-hour period ending at 1 p.m. EST included 1.56 inches at Alexandria, La., and 1.29 inches at Baton Rouge, La. Temperatures around the nation at 2 p.m. EST ranged from 24 degrees at Yellowstone Park, Wyo., to 87 at the Southwest Regional Airport in Fort Myers, Fla. The early morning low for the nation was 3 degrees above zero at International Falls, Minn. Thursday's forecast called for showers and thunderstorms extending from the southern and central Appalachians through the mid-Mississippi Valley and across much of the southern and central Plains. Rain was expected from Kentucky and Tennessee into Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas. Snow was forecast for the central Rockies and the central high Plains, eastern Colorado and western Nebraska. Fair skies should prevail over the rest of the nation. High temperatures should be below 50 degrees from much of the Rockies to the upper Great Lakes, including highs only in the 30s and upper 20s from northern Arizona across much of Colorado and Wyoming to western South Dakota. Highs should reach in the 60s and 70s from the southern and central Pacific Coast through southern Arizona and the southern high Plains to the southern and mid-Atlantic Coast, and in the 50s in most of the rest of the nation.
