Latest storm does little to boost Utah snowpack

SALT LAKE CITY — This latest spring storm may have ruined the day for sun worshippers, but water watchers say the snowfall is a "little late and a little too little" for what has turned out to be a less than stellar season for accumulations.

Thursday brought an "official" end to the snow accumulation season, although a few more inches are expected to pile up in the mountains over the next several days.

Overall, the northern Utah area is averaging about 77 percent of normal, said Brian McInerney, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

A measuring station at Trial Lake along the Mirror Lake Highway, for example, shows 14 inches of snow water equivalent (moisture) in the snowpack, when it should be at 25.3 inches.

What snow has accumulated should begin to melt from the mountains by the third week in April, and McInerney said the time for any snow to linger on the valley floor has all but vanished.

The good news is that while the snowpack totals aren't where they should be, the water supply is "doing just fine," McInerney said.

Last year's normal spring runoff, coupled with early summer rainfall that hit 400 percent of normal, kept reservoirs filled as water users looked to the sky to keep yards and crops green.

"We were filling reservoirs all the way into July, so as a result of this, we have a lot of money in the bank," he said. "We may have made only 50 percent of our income, but we can draw on the water we have in reserves."

McInerney said there are a few conditions that can help keep those reserves in the bank.

"If we put together a cool, wet spring and hold this snow as long as possible and then turn the heat on and have thunderstorms, we can get a good yield," he said. "What we don't want to see with low snowpack is a warm spring."

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