Snow and plunging temperatures on Thursday evening turned roads treacherous and brought the commute to a frustrating crawl.

On State Street in north county, traffic fared no better, with commute times doubling or tripling in the slick conditions.

As of 7:30 p.m., there had been 35 snow-related accidents along the freeway and highways in Utah County, said Trooper Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol.

"Who needs the winter solstice to declare that it is winter in Utah?" said David James, BYU weather station overseer. "Driving on Utah's roads Thursday evening could convince just about everyone."

Thursday's storm blasted into Utah Valley between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. "The cold front was accompanied by ice pellets, strong winds and a temperature drop of more than 10 degrees in a few minutes," James said. "The ice pellets eventually turned to snow and the roads became treacherous. Thunder and lightning, rare December features in our area, were also reported in some areas."

While thousands north of Utah County faced power outages as of 7:10 p.m. on Thursday, Utah County residents were relatively lucky by comparison.

"We have 156 customers south of Salt Lake experiencing outages, and I am not sure if those are together or scattered," said Margaret Oler of Rocky Mountain Power. In Ogden, 3,000 people were without power and 1,700 in the Salt Lake area, she said, noting the company was working quickly to correct outages and the "numbers are changing all the time."

An outage was reported in Provo Thursday night south of 300 South but details were not available as to the cause and duration.

Peak wind gusts from the storm in Utah Valley included 51 mph in American Fork, 50 mph above the Alpine exit on Interstate 15, 47 mph in Pleasant Grove, 45 mph in Highland and in Provo, and 43 mph in Orem, said James.

"Leaves and tumbleweeds combined with ice pellets and snow to make driving difficult in many areas," James said.

As troublesome as it may have been for drivers, the storm bodes well for next summer's water supply.

"This has been a big month for precipitation -- in fact, it is the wettest December at the Provo-BYU weather station since the snowy year of 1983," James said.

Back then, 6 inches of precipitation were measured during December and it remains the wettest December on record, he said. As of Thursday at 5 p.m., 3.27 inches of precipitation have been measured.

"That makes this month the 5th wettest December in Provo since records began in 1889," he said. "Other wet Decembers were 4.08 inches in 1951, 3.94 inches in 1922 and 3.34 inches during 1964."

No one expects to break the record but with 11 more days left in the month and more storms in the forecast, "we could easily move into third or fourth wettest or possibly higher," he said.

More storms are expected to bring snow during the next week. The best chance for rain and snow will be Saturday night and Sunday, late Christmas Eve into Christmas Day and again on late Wednesday.

While southern Utah has an above-normal amount of water in the snowpack for this time of year, the Provo River drainage still has only about 60 percent of the normal water in the snowpack, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said James.

"Future snowstorms should cause that number to rise," he said. "Water-year precipitation totals, which include rain and melted snow, to date are about 80 percent of normal in the Provo River drainage."