Does Cedar City, Utah Get Snow? 60 Inches a Year in Town, Five Feet at the Top of Highway 14

Yes. Cedar City, Utah averages 59.6 inches of snow a year, according to NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for its station at 6,090 feet. That beats the 51.9 inches at Salt Lake City’s airport. Snow falls from late October to mid April, some years into May, with December and March the snowiest months. In town it melts off within a couple of days more often than not.

The bigger snow story sits up the road. On a typical March 15 the ground in Cedar City stays bare, while the federal snow sensor beside Highway 14, about 18 miles up the highway and 3,700 feet higher, reads five and a half feet. If you are driving up to Duck Creek Village from Cedar City, that gap matters more than the town average.

The first two rows come from NOAA’s normals. The dates and the January figure come from our own count of the station’s day by day records, which run from 2000 to this week.

Cedar City snowfall by month, November to April

October adds 0.9 inches in a normal year and May adds 1.4. Measurable snow fell in 13 of the 27 Octobers since 2000, and in 9 of the 22 Mays with complete records. Spring also holds the station’s biggest single day since 2000: 14.8 inches on April 4, 2023, a hair over the 14.0 inches of December 28, 2006.

Snow lands here more than it stays. The normal January high runs 42.3F, and 83 percent of January days in the record climbed above freezing. More than half of all snow cover spells ended within two days. A typical winter adds up to about 65 days of snow cover, scattered in short spells across the season. The longest unbroken run lasted 45 days, from December 28, 2006 to February 10, 2007.

Five feet of snow at the top of Highway 14

Highway 14 leaves Cedar City at 5,846 feet and crests at 9,905 feet, 17 miles from town, then drops 1,450 feet into Duck Creek Village. Two NRCS SNOTEL stations sit beside the road on the climb: Suu Ranch at 8,050 feet, about 11 miles up, and Midway Valley at 9,830 feet, under a quarter mile off the pavement near the crest.

Harris Flat and Panguitch Lake are the two SNOTEL sites closest to the village’s 8,455 feet, one to the east and one to the north. The medians cover the 12 winters from 2014-15 through 2025-26, the years all five stations share.

Photographer Alex Proimos drove this road toward Cedar City in an April 2009 storm. He lost traction near Cedar Breaks and sat bogged in deep snow until two men hauling snowmobiles stopped and pushed him out. Then he followed their truck at 20 mph for the last 10 miles to town. His photo from Cedar City the next morning shows a thin crust of snow on a car roof and bare streets. The records match his story: Midway Valley went from 67 to 89 inches of snow on the ground between April 13 and 15, while NOAA’s Cedar City station logged no new snow from April 13 through 18.

This weekend runs the same script. The National Weather Service forecast issued just after midnight on October 31, 2026 calls for 1.5 to 2.25 inches of rain in Cedar City through Sunday night, with a chance of snow mixing in after 11 pm Sunday. Its forecast point near the summit calls for 12 to 22 inches of snow over the same hours. The village gets rain for most of the storm in that forecast, with under half an inch of snow, which puts this storm’s snow line between the village and the summit.

Before you drive, check the cameras on our Highway 14 road conditions page. Our winter driving guide covers the traction rules and the full climb.

Last winter in Cedar City was the thinnest since 2000

Winter 2025-26 brought the smallest total of any winter in the station’s record since 2000. The first inch did not fall until December 27, the biggest snowfall of the season came on May 18 with 5.1 inches, and the ground held an inch or more on 18 days. Three of the last four winters finished under the normal. The 30 year normal also counts the 1990s, which sit outside the station’s online record.

Christmas shows the same swing. Cedar City had an inch or more on the ground on December 25 in 14 of the 24 years on record, including every Christmas from 2011 through 2017. None of the last six, 2020 through 2025, did.

Quick answers about snow in Cedar City

Does it snow in Cedar City in October?

Some years. Measurable snow fell in about half of the Octobers since 2000, and a normal October totals under an inch. Halloween snow comes rarer still, in 2 of the last 26 years.

Is Cedar City snowier than Salt Lake City?

By the official normals, yes. Cedar City averages close to 60 inches a year, against 51.9 at Salt Lake City International Airport.

Does snow stay on the ground in Cedar City?

Not for long. More than half of the snow cover spells in town end within two days, because January afternoons average 42F.

Is Highway 14 open when it snows in Cedar City?

UDOT plows Highway 14 all winter, and storms close it for hours rather than days. Check the road cameras before you start the climb, since the top can hold fresh snow while town gets rain, as it does this weekend.

For the village’s own numbers, see our November weather guide, and our Cedar City guide covers things to do in town. Our cabins and rooms sit at the top of that climb in Duck Creek Village, with open dates this November and again from March. Come up the day before a storm and watch it from a window instead of a windshield.