After one of the driest winter seasons in decades, a winter storm walloped campus this week.
On Feb. 18, the University of Utah issued its first winter weather alert of the season, urging faculty and instructors to shift their classes to online and hybrid formats to alleviate traffic congestion and help students, faculty and staff avoid hazardous road conditions.
“Winter in Utah offers stunning natural beauty and opportunities for enjoyable outdoor activities, but it also often comes with extreme weather and natural disasters, including winter storms. The storm we’re experiencing now is proof,” Bob Carter and Mitzi Montoya, executive vice presidents for Health Sciences and Academic Affairs, wrote in a message to faculty.
“Over the course of the next few days and the rest of the semester, it may be necessary for campus to operate remotely or even close briefly, depending on heavy snowfall, power outages and related travel impacts.”
While this this year’s La Nina pattern has meant unseasonably warm and dry weather in Utah, the first major storm of 2026 is likely not to be the last.
Preparing a 1,500-acre campus—and the 70,000 students, faculty and staff who study, teach and work there every day—for exceptional winter weather requires research, a lot of planning and, in the end, a bit of prognostication. Alerts typically are issued when the National Weather Service Issues a Winter Storm Advisory.
Here’s a primer on when and how university leaders alert campus about severe weather:
- First, a team of campus leaders from across campus—including academic affairs, auxiliary services, communications, environmental health and safety, facilities, general counsel, housing, hospitals and clinics, human resources, information technology, public health, public safety and student affairs—meet to discuss the forecast. Others from outside campus may also join the call to discuss conditions and snow removal on the streets and highways leading to campus.
- Next, based on the forecast (the expected timing of the most intense precipitation, the path of the storm and changes in temperature and wind), travel impacts and assessments of U facilities crews’ ability to clear campus roads, sidewalks and parking lots, the group considers three options:
- Scheduling a late start to classes, childcare centers and other campus operations.
- Moving all but essential functions to remote platforms.
- Or, rarely, calling a “snow day” (the last was in 2020).
- Finally, an urgent alert message is written and sent out via text and email to the campus community.
Emergency managers note one caveat: With an academic medical center (including multiple health care clinics and a Level 1 trauma center hospital), thousands of students living on campus and childcare centers that students and employees alike depend on, the University of Utah campus never technically “closes.”
With forecasting storm impacts an inexact science, the alerts encourage all instructors to be flexible with students who have difficulty getting to campus. The university draws folks from different parts of northern Utah with distinct weather that can be impacted by “Lake Effect” snow, canyon winds and even some microclimate patterns.
Carter and Montoya urged faculty and instructors to have empathy and compassion for their students and be flexible with course material and assignments during extreme weather events.
“If we are nimble and practical, the University of Utah’s response to the uncertainties of weather forecasting will be much more efficient and lead to a quicker pivot back to normal operations,” they wrote.
