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SALT LAKE CITY — "Much above average." Those words describe the overall water supply conditions based on the water year's stellar precipitation that delivered more than ample snowpacks to most regions of the state.
With wet weather forecast over the next several days — with more snow expected to pile up in the mountains through Sunday — floods are on everyone's mind.
"Looking out the window, winter seems to be hanging on and snowpacks at the mid and high elevations are still accumulating," said a summary of the 2011 Water Supply Outlook report released Tuesday by the National Resource Conservation Service.
An approaching cold front will hit the Wasatch Front Tuesday afternoon, delivering the potential of up to 12 inches of new snow in the mountains overnight.
The unsettled weather could bring some valley precipitation, warns the National Weather Service, and snow levels will drop to 5,000 feet. The area will then get a "break" on Wednesday before a much colder and more unsettled weather pattern moves in Thursday and stays through the weekend.
"April is the key swing month with regard to snowmelt runoff," the report said.
An approaching cold front will hit the Wasatch Front Tuesday afternoon, delivering the potential of up to 12 inches of new snow in the mountains overnight.
The unsettled weather could bring some valley precipitation, warns the National Weather Service, and snow levels will drop to 5,000 feet. The area will then get a "break" on Wednesday before a much colder and more unsettled weather pattern moves in Thursday and stays through the weekend.
That pattern shift will drop temperatures 20 degrees below what is typically seen, and the mountains could see "significant" snowfall. Rain mixed with snow is anticipated to fall on the valley floors, and driving conditions could turn slick.
Water managers are wary of potential valley rainfall, which will add to already swollen rivers.
Tage Flint, general manager of the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, said it is a bit like a game of cat-and-mouse as flows from reservoirs to rivers are reduced to counter flooding concerns. That will help mitigate immediate dangers, but it does not help reservoirs to absorb the snowmelt in the months to come.
The longer the weather stays so cool and snowpack continues to accumulate in April, that leads to fears that spring runoff and the snowmelt is an "all at once" type of scenario, which is exactly what flood watchers do not want.
Statewide, for the seasonal accumulation measured from October to April, the accumulations were 142 percent of average.
Flint and other water conservancy district managers have not reported any significant flooding due to runoff or swollen rivers as of yet.
There is a fear that low-lying farmlands prone to inundation during high runoff years may be impacted this spring throughout the state, depending on what the weather does.
"We just have to react to each storm as it comes," Flint said.
Email:aodonoghue@ksl.com
