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NORTHERN UTAH -- It looks like the worst of Utah's flooding season is over.
According to the National Weather Service, a cool June brought just enough water off the mountains at a slow enough pace to avoid any major problems.
"The big, dramatic flooding didn't take place due to the temperature levels that we saw," said Brian McInerney, Senior Hydrologist with the NSW.
There is still a lot of snow in the mountains that will continue to come down, but the NWS says chances are the brunt of it is gone. Even if the weather heats up, we're not likely to have any flooding worse than what we've already seen.
Earlier this spring you may have thought heavy snow packs in the mountains meant good news for skiers and very bad news for flooding. It turns out, that may not be entirely true.
"What would happen is, we'd have about a day or two of warm temperatures, rivers would go up, they'd hit flood stage, very minor flooding. And then we'd have a cold front move through," McInerney said.
But weather isn't the only thing that helped minimize the damage. Many counties and cities started preparing early by supplying plenty of sandbags and keeping the waterways clear of debris.
"The National Weather Service went to the cities counties and parts of the state to start talking about the possibility of flooding back in early March," McInerney said.
Still, it's no reason to put away the sandbags. Flooding is still a possibility -- just not likely as bad as what we've seen so far.
You might say we dodged a bullet.
McInerney says the thing to watch now will be thunderstorms as a potential cause for flooding. In the meantime, the snow will continue to come off the mountains for several weeks, so you still need to watch your kids near waterways and stay out of the water.
Email: manderson@ksl.com
