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Jed Boal ReportingAs flood waters spill over riverbanks in Northern Utah, hydrologists say we've entered a period of vulnerability for the entire state. Most of us saw threatening skies throughout the day and many communities got a real soaking. For the next six to eight weeks floodwaters could be a problem from north to south in Utah.
Communities across the state are vulnerable. This kind of flooding can happen just about anywhere in the state when the drenching rains blow through. It was just their day in Box Elder and Cache Counties. Soils are saturated from rainfall and snowmelt, rivers are high; when a lot of rain falls on those conditions heavy flows come down the streams.
Whether there is flooding depends on several factors including how much debris is in the channel and how much people have built near the waterways in the last few years. Utah Snow Survey Hydrologist Randy Julander says the areas that flooded today, were not even at greatest risk from extraordinary snowmelt.
Randy Julander, Utah Snow Survey Hydrologist: "We are entering a window of vulnerability. Watersheds are going to be melting one to two inches of snow every day. That would be a one to two inch rain storm every day for the next 30 to possibly 60 days."
Julander says this is not an extraordinary event, though it certainly seems that way in Brigham City and Cache County. This is what normally happens in Northern Utah in the spring.We simply haven't seen these conditions in six years.
