The Decision Making Process begins

Okie, dokie, folks, here we are again--Stay?  Or go?  If go, when?  If stay, why?  Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Here are the basic facts.  There is light snow and overcast conditions in Fillmore.  The temp is just below freezing.  There's a LOT of ugly rock solid snow frozen stiff in the parking lot.  The trucks are encrusted and probably "frozen in place."  Way off a few miles distant, I can see the faint pinpricks of headlights moving south on I-15.  So, we know the interstate is open and flowing, as they say.

Here is what the SLC NWS wonks had to say in their 5 am chit chat: DISCUSSION...THE CLOSED LOW HAS MOVED OFF INTO NEW MEXICO THIS MORNING AND PRECIP DIRECTLY RELATED TO THIS FEATURE HAS ENDED. HOWEVER...CONSIDERABLE LOW LEVEL MOISTURE PERSISTS ACROSS THE CWA WITH EXTENSIVE LOW CLOUDINESS OVER AND WEST OF THE HIGHER TERRAIN AS WELL AS OVER THE SOUTHEAST. LIGHT SNOW OR FLURRIES HAVE BEEN FALLING OUT OF THIS AS NOTED ON CAMERAS AND IN A FEW OBS BUT THIS IS NOT EXPECTED TO AMOUNT TO ANYTHING. (They type in ALL CAPS, sorry 'bout that.)

Radar confirms the storm is gone. Meanwhile, the high temp here is progged in the low 40's.  The webcam on Utah 20 is dead.  The webcam on I-70 shows a fairly knarly scene. That's about the sum of what we know--other than the fact we haven't had coffee yet.

Let's now enter the realm of speculation.  Utah's highway people (AKA: UDOT) are really, really good about plowing and cindering. They really pride themselves on their aggressive approach to snow and ice.  Meanwhile, you have to realize that I-15 is MAJOR long haul route and serves 4 out of 5 of all the people in Utah!  Utah 20, is the major link to get truck traffic into Arizona via Panguitch and Page to I-40 at Flagstaff.

There's NO way UDOT will have a bunch of jack-knifed tractor-trailer rigs blocking the Utah 20 summit at 7900 feet.  Nope, not with this long a time period to plow and cinder.

Right now, I favor the "GO" mode.  The hard work is going to be cleaning ice and snow off the trucks and getting loose from the stuff here in the parking lot.  If it's progged to be in the 40's today, it's going to start warming up pretty pronto.  All we need is temps in the mid-30's to be home free.  We're going to presume UT 20 is well cindered by now and safe.  We still have to option of adding an hour to the trip by heading east on I-70 23 miles and then south on historic US 89 through Big Rock Candy Mountain Country along the Sevier River through Butch Cassady's birthplace and onto to Big Fish, Utah (AKA: Panguitch).