ST. GEORGE — Utah is experiencing one of its best winters in 20 years with January ending at 200% above average precipitation levels. This year’s snowpack has also been compared with levels not seen since 1984 and 1997.
According the National Resources Conservation Service, Utah is now guaranteed to have an above-normal snowpack. Every additional inch of snow that falls between now and when melting starts, further adds to that, and with it, more potential for runoff that will be used to fill reservoirs.
In the southwestern part of the state, snowpack is currently listed at 185% above average, though that will likely change with the onset of a new storm system passing through the state Tuesday night and later on this week.
“This is our opportunity year,” Candice Hasenyager, director of the Division of Water Resources, said in a statement issued Tuesday. “In order to take full advantage of our plentiful snowpack, we must continue to use our water wisely. One good snow year won’t pull the state out of drought. And by using less water, we will become more drought resilient.”
While recent storms have helped diminish the severity of the drought across the state, water managers have said it will take multiple years of above-average snowfall to bring the drought to an end.
The majority of Utah was in a state of severe-to-extreme drought in September 2022. The areas under extreme drought have reduced significantly between then and mid-February due to the storms. Currently, most of the state is listed as experiencing moderate-to-severe levels of drought.
Most of Washington County is under moderate drought conditions while Iron County is listed as moderate-to-severe like the state overall is.
More significant impacts wrought by the snowpack likely won’t be known until it starts to melt. Runoff for snowpack in Utah usually occurs in March and April. This can be frustrating if warmer weather causes runoff to occur much faster or extreme dryness causes any runoff to be soaked into the ground before reaching waterways.
If warmer weather causes fast runoff, there are concerns among local water managers and elected officials it would lead to flooding similar to what was seen on the Santa Clara River in 2005.
“A lot of the water we have received this winter has been held within the snowpack,” Hayden Mahan, a forecaster to the National Weather Service out of Salt Lake City, said in an email to St. George News.
“We have been cold this winter so a lot of that water has not yet melted off and contributed to rivers and reservoirs yet,” he said. “So we will have a better understanding of how well our drought will improve once we start to melt this snow off (and depending on how high above normal we end the season). So, although it’s hard to say where we will be going exactly, it’s clear that we are in much better shape this winter going into the summer compared to where we were last winter.”
Runoff from snowpack that fills the state’s reservoirs provides Utah with over 90% of its drinking water.
Thus far, 24 of the 47 reservoirs the Utah Division of Water Resources monitors are below 55% capacity, which is about the same as last year but still about 10% lower than normal for this time of year.
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