Abstract Analyses of proximity soundings and upper-air fields for 37–51 Utah severe wind cases (WIND), reported in the months of May–September and occurring within 3 h after upper-air observation time, are presented. In addition, a comparison of sample mean values between the WIND cases and a climatological sample (CLIM) is made using a standard t test to determine which variables are significantly different between the two samples. This study seeks to determine if the synoptic-scale-derived fields play a significant role in producing severe wind for a region in which subsynoptic effects, attributed to uneven terrain, are important. The WIND sample environment had the following important differences when compared to CLIM: more convergent wind in the lower troposphere (700-mb moisture and wind convergence), greater moisture at 500 mb (dewpoint, mixing ratio), greater positive vorticity advection (500 mb) and differential vorticity advection (700–500 mb), a larger lapse rate based on various stability indic...