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SALT LAKE CITY — Finally, some rain. It wasn’t much during the early morning hours Wednesday, but it was the first time Utah has had any moisture in a long time.
"This really is one of the first and largest storms that we've had in many, many days, months actually," said Randy Julander, snow survey supervisor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The storm brought some rain; a tenth to 8-tenths of an inch was common. There was quite a bit of hail that fell in Davis County, and some of the high peaks in northern Utah had a dusting of snow.
"That said, it's done exactly nothing," Julander said.
Utah has been in a drought for so long, five years and counting, that a storm like this is minuscule, said Brian McInerney, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City. "When you look at this year and this summer, we broke heat records all over the place," McInerney said Wednesday.
At the same time, no moisture. A double whammy of a summer for sure. "At (the Salt Lake International Airport monitoring station), we had 21 straight days of 95 (degrees) and above,” McInerney said. “And we had the hottest nighttime temperature we've ever had. And the list goes on."
Utah State University has tracked weather conditions on campus dating back to 1893. This summer's rain total was an all-time low: 0.07 inches.
Utah didn't get the normal monsoon conditions this summer, which would have produced storms on a more regular basis. That put more strain on the reservoirs, which are about 5 percent lower than last year. Plus, the soil is extremely dry right now, absorbing any moisture that falls, which in turn reduces runoff. So, we need some help from Mother Nature, and fast.
“The next part of this comes in the fall rains," McInerney said. “You want to have 100 to 150 percent rainfall over the entire state. That would be the optimum scenario."
A giant ridge of high pressure has blocked many storms from getting into Utah over the past 5 years. Question is: Does it build up again for the upcoming winter season? Julander said maybe the law of averages will come into play.
“The bad news is that we've had a consecutive string of poor snowpack years. The good news, if there is any, the longer the streak goes, the more it's likely to be broken."
