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John Hollenhorst ReportingRandy Julander, Snow Survey Expert: "It's just a phenomenally poor year down here. And it's pretty much all over southern Utah and southeastern Utah."
Snow measurements in Southern Utah are so different from last year that instead of worrying about floods, this year people are worrying about drought. At a key measuring station east of Cedar City, the snow depth is less than a quarter of last year, but even worse, the water content is practically "zilch".
In Dixie they've gone from the "F" word, "flooding", to the "D" word, "drought". In Northern Utah, we're having a good snow year, but down south the question is, "Where IS the snow?"
There is enough snow to travel by snowmobile, and enough for sledding, if you don't mind some bare patches. At the snow survey station, one measurement was 41 inches, ut the orange ribbon at the top of the pole shows a much higher snow level last year. 14 feet deep then, just over three feet now, with exceptionally low water content.
Randy Julander, Snow Survey Expert: "It would take probably two storms every week from now until mid-April to catch them back up to normal. I just don't see that happening. It looks ugly, and anybody who's dependent on direct stream flow is going to be hurting real bad."
The good news is that reservoirs got supercharged last year, so most towns and cities should be in good shape.
Up in the north were sitting pretty. It should be an average year, no matter what the rest of the winter brings.
