Title: Utah Center for Climate and Weather: Climate of Utah
Headings: NWS Description of Utah's Climate
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Climate of Utah
NWS Description of Utah's Climate
Prehistoric Climate of Utah
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Content: Land masses were repeatedly overrun by large seas, and extreme temperature and precipitation conditions occurred. About 200 to 250 million years ago there was a marked cooling trend over the northern hemisphere which was more favorable for the growth of luxurious vegetation. During that time, Utah's coal and oil fields were in the formative stages. These important modern natural resources resulted from major changes that occurred during Utah's prehistoric climate and geology. About 150 million years ago a widespread drought occurred which resulted in extremely large sandstorms. The dust bowl days of the 1930's in the Great Plains area of the United States were a gentle picnic in comparison to this ancient “dry spell.” Sand swirled for centuries until it was piled in dunes thousand of feet high. Later, the mountains were pushed up to heights well above Utah's present mountain peaks. Eventually, another sea covered the area and endured for as long as a hundred million years. When the sea eventually disappeared, the windblown sand was revealed as the multicolored hills and rock outcroppings seen today in Utah's famous National Parks of Arches, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Zion.