St. George weather

St. George is the red rock gateway at the Utah end of the corridor, a fast growing city set among sandstone cliffs at about 2,700 feet. Its winters are milder than the rest of Utah, which is exactly why people move and visit here, and its weather can feel a world apart from both the Las Vegas valley and the higher Utah country beyond. For drivers, the key point is the road behind it: the Virgin River Gorge, in Arizona, between St. George and Mesquite. A sunny St. George afternoon says little about conditions in that canyon, where storms can drop heavy rain on the river corridor and send water and rock onto the roadway while the city stays dry.

As a driving base, St. George is the north anchor of this site. It is the jumping off point for Zion National Park and the rest of southern Utah's park country, and it is the first full city for southbound drivers who have come through the Gorge. It is also a commitment point in the other direction. Leaving St. George southbound, you soon leave Utah, cross a corner of Arizona inside the Gorge, and reach Nevada at Mesquite, three states in one short drive, with no services in the canyon stretch. Check the Gorge verdict in St. George, fuel in the city, and treat the canyon as the drive it is, not as a short hop between towns.

Getting around: St. George has several I-15 exits with full services, and the roads to Zion and the other southern Utah parks branch off from here. Southbound, fuel and check conditions in St. George before entering the Virgin River Gorge, where there are no exits with services.