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SALT LAKE CITY -- Winter-weary Utahns may be ready to wave a white flag of surrender, but water managers are beyond giddy over what is stacking up to be a fantastic outlook for the state's water supply.
"You can probably see my grin through the telephone," said Randy Julander of the Utah Snow Survey. "We not only have some really big numbers to start the water year, but in several cases, we have had record numbers."
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Record snowfall has been recorded at 18 SNOTEL (SNOwpack TELemetry) sites across the state, with 17 sites that came in at second place.
"Wow!" notes Julander's water supply report that logged numbers as of Jan. 1 of this year, adding that the word does not begin to adequately describe the snowpack and general watershed conditions, even with double or triple exclamation points.
To put it in context, Julander said that statewide, there was 258 percent more snow as of Jan. 1 of this year compared to last year at the same time.
Some basins, like the Provo, have 350 percent more snow than this time last year.
Coupled with the ample snowpack is a record-breaking soil moisture content throughout the state that, in most cases, has not been seen in the 10 years that it has been measured, Julander said.
"Not only is that fantastic news, with most of the reservoirs in really good shape, but we have one bodacious snowpack sitting up there," he said.
The snowpack combined with wet soil could lead to flooding down the road, but Julander stressed there are several months left in the water year yet to come and "conditions will change over that period of time."
"We have a lot of winter left to play," he said, and there are "100 ways we could mess it up. I am not in charge. Mother Nature dictates what happens."
E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com.
