PROVO — Possible, but not probable.

That's how several experts describe the chances of flooding in Utah County in the coming days and weeks. So, while it appears there's no need to pull out the sandbags just yet, there are a few areas in Utah Valley that residents should keep an eye on.

"While it's certainly a concern, and it certainly bears watching, we're certainly not in a panic situation yet either," said Utah Snow Survey supervisor Randy Julander.

The biggest risk area lies in the north end of the valley, around American Fork River and Dry Creek. Record snowpack on the Timp Divide — 214 percent of normal — means 38 inches of water will flow into area streams and rivers. In an average year, 17.5 inches would trickle down.

National Weather Service hydrologist Brian McInerney said the rivers can probably handle the snowmelt, but if high precipitation is added to that, flooding could occur.

"The snowmelt, with that volume of snow, should bring the American Fork River and Dry Creek up to near bank full, and then as a result, if we get a rainfall event over that, those two areas, because the river is constricted with development, and maybe some debris, we could see some problems," he said.

This year's water situation has a few ominous things in common with 1983, when floods caused severe damage to several areas of Utah County.

"The biggest flood in 35 years was 1983," McInerney said. "What brought us to that flood level was we had a large snowpack on April 1, and we delayed melting that snow and we added to it all the way down to the valley floors into the first week of May. At that time, the climate shifted drastically from cool and wet to very hot with additional rain. So all of the snow melted all at once, it rained on it, and it all came off, and that caused massive widespread flooding."

But McInerney pointed out some key differences between 1983 and 2005.

"We don't have a whole lot of low-elevation snowpack, as we did that year," he said. "But we do have more development near the river, we have more debris in the channels right now that they are feverishly trying to pull out, and we also haven't had a good flushing flow in the channel for about eight years."

Both McInerney and Julander emphasized that it would take a severe thunderstorm — not unlike what Cache Valley experienced — to create flood conditions around American Fork Canyon.