Don Nicholas walked through his garage, where rainwater was pouring through from his backyard as though the garage floor were a shallow stream.
"Maybe I should have bought a boat instead of a Ranger," he said with a laugh, walking past the red all-terrain vehicle that would get a lot more use in a warmer, drier spring.
Behind the garage, water from the south end of Ben Lomond Golf Course was overflowing into the backyard of his home on the 400 West block of 1550 North in Harrisville. He pointed to a pile of sandbags in the far corner, leftovers from two years ago, the last time his backyard flooded. The water never got into his home then, and he hopes this year is no different. He just spent $15,000 remodeling his basement.
His home is one of two on the street threatened by Thursday's rain and snow. His neighbor, Kris Jorgensen, received pumps from the golf course so she could drain her backyard. The city donated a few sandbags to Nicholas for his own backyard.
"At least the ducks are enjoying it," Nicholas said, watching as a pair of them swam around the flooded course.
But the storm systems, moving in from the south and expected to last through Saturday, did not leave everyone unscathed.
Like a bolt out of the blue, lightning struck a West Weber residence Thursday, rattling the nerves of two people inside but causing no injuries or major damage.
Janette McNee was in the family room of her home at 935 S. 4700 West in West Weber watching television, and her son Kade was in the living room using a computer shortly before 11 a.m. when a lightning bolt struck a pipe on the roof leading to a wood-burning stove.
The bolt traveled down the pipe and shattered a cinder block foundation under the stove, sending shards of concrete flying just a few feet from where Janette was sitting.
"It was loud," Janette said, adding that a thunderclap accompanied the lightning strike. She phoned 911 to summon Weber County firefighters.
The only noticeable damage from the lightning, besides the broken cinder block foundation, was a small hole in the home's rear exterior.
There were 88 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes recorded in Northern Utah between 11 a.m. and noon Thursday, which is relatively high for a winter storm, said Christine Kruse, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
McNee's home is the only structure reported as being struck, she said.
Shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, Lynn Saunders found about an inch and a half of water in the basement of his home at 4000 S. 3300 West in West Haven. Firefighters helped him scoop out buckets of it at a time.
It was not clear where the water was coming from. Saunders postulated it may be a broken water line.
"I don't know how this could have happened," he said.
The inclement weather also caused a three-car wreck on Interstate 15 near Portage, as well as one slide-off on Interstate 84, but no one was injured, Box Elder County dispatchers said. The weather also led to at least two crashes in Davis County, also without injury, dispatchers said.
The storm that produced thunder and ice pellets in some areas was caused by a nearly stationary cold front that settled over the Wasatch Front.
The front was expected to begin moving out of the area around midnight Thursday, said Kruse.
Between early morning and 2 p.m. Thursday, the storm produced precipitation totaling 0.71 inches at Ogden-Hinckley Airport, 0.48 inches in Roy and 0.29 inches in Layton.
It's likely to rain and snow 1 to 3 inches throughout today, with winds picking up to 17 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service. Snowfall may continue into Saturday.
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