( click here) Snow Survey Data, Products, and Reports Snow Survey staff review and quality-control only the daily (midnight) readings from SNOTEL sites. Only emergency personnel are permitted to be outside any buildings. Storm totals ( click here) Interactive Map ( major basins, subbasins, other) Streamflow forecasts ( click here) Let's play in the snow Recreation links. Snowbird and nearby Alta, which has reported 874 inches of snow this season, remain under Interlodge-patrons and employees must seek shelter indoors-by order of the marshal. Photos from this morning show some massive slides in the White Pine area. □ Here’s an aerial view of Little Cottonwood Canyon showing some of the recent avalanche activity and the debris buildup along #SR210. The storm broke Snowbird’s all-time snowfall record of 783 inches, which was set during the 2010-2011 season. Season snow totals at Snowbird have topped 808 inches as of Wednesday, April 5, as the most recent storm dropped 67 inches of snow onto Little Cottonwood Canyon-with more predicted to fall throughout the day. The recent storm has only added more heft to a historic season of snow totals. The road closure means that ski areas Snowbird, Alta, Brighton, and Solitude Mountain Resort are also closed, and backcountry travel is not recommended due to avalanche danger. So, Utah’s water experts hope the snowpack accumulation season continues to perform well, while warning there’s no doubt that flooding as a result of Utah’s “feast or famine” approach to snow should be something residents plan on this spring.Utah’s Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons remain closed on Wednesday, April 5, due to avalanche hazard and snow mitigation following a massive snowstorm. Merrill said statewide they are at 45% capacity, down 5% from last year.Īnd folks like Clayton, Merrill and water providers hope 2023 does not turn into a repeat of 2022, in which new moisture vanished during January and February. The sheen the silver lining lacks is the condition of Utah’s reservoirs, which were heavily tapped last year during record heat and drought conditions. Merrill added that all next week remains in the grip of an unsettled and potentially wet pattern for activity and he says he sees that storminess hanging on at least through the end of January. Tuesday’s storm will linger into Wednesday and Thursday, and then the precipitation will taper off and give residents a bit of a reprieve. “Precipitation has been great this year.” “So about as wet as we could get,” he said, adding that for the last several weeks, the storms have been nonstop. Glen Merrill, senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, said soil moisture content in the basins is above average, which bodes for a good runoff with additional storms forecast to add to those conditions. Does the weekend snowstorm kick Utah off to a good water year?.“This is the fifth best start in our year for water supply in the period we’ve had records,” Clayton said, pointing to ample water (and flood) years like 1997, 20. There are 80 days left in the water year that ends in April, with more potential for storms, and already, Clayton said, the state is at 80% of its goal of reaching normal peak runoff conditions. In fact, all the state’s basins are sitting at 150% of normal, and right now, the amount of snowpack statewide is 176% of normal. “It is refreshing to see these basins in dark blue,” the color denoting triple-digit percentages of how much water, or snow, has hit the ground, rather than “red conditions,” which have been the norm of parched basins for what seems like forever, said Jordan Clayton, supervisor of the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Utah Snow Survey.Ĭlayton was among those weather watchers and trackers who spoke at a Tuesday meeting detailing the state’s water supply outlook, and the view is looking great. Water experts who track water supply conditions couldn’t be happier. There is another storm predicted to roll into Utah Tuesday night, delivering additional snow and rain to already soggy conditions.
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