Utah in 2020: With COVID, an earthquake, winds and fires, it was a year many may like to forget â but never will Protests against racism and police violence also brought reforms, while voters did what the Senate didnât: Dump Trump. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) It has been a tumultuous 2020 with a magnitude 5.7 earthquake shaking the Salt Lake Valley, hurricane-force winds toppling thousands of trees, raging wildfires forcing record evacuations, protests against racism and police violence snaking through city streets and, of course, the coronavirus casting a pall over everything. Along the way, Spencer Cox will become Utah's first new governor in more than a decade, Mitt Romney made history with his vote to oust a president from his own party, and the parents of slain student athlete Lauren McCluskey settled their lawsuit with the University of Utah.