Hydrologist says water supply looks fabulous

Hydrologist says water supply looks fabulous


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Amanda Butterfield reportingThe National Weather Service predicts a dry weekend for us and then more storms next week.

A state hydrologist says when the next big storm hits, don't get too frustrated about all the shoveling because we need it.

Brian McInerney, with the National Weather Service, says, "Right now, our water supply looks fabulous." He hasn't said that in a while.

He says the snowpack is near 140 percent in the south, 110 percent in the north, and even in the Logan area it's at 80 percent. "We're still in very good shape. We have significant snowpacks; all around we're looking really well right now," McInerney says.

Hydrologist says water supply looks fabulous

He also says that our low elevation snowpack is two to three times what the normal is at this point.

McInerney predicts that all the state's reservoirs, except Lake Powell and Bear Lake, could be full this year if we have a "normal" runoff in the spring. That can happen, if the snow doesn't start melting in March.

Hydrologist says water supply looks fabulous

He says, "If we can keep it as long as possible and melt it later in the year, we get a lot more efficient runoff. What we don't want to do is have so much we have floods; that could be problematic."

So next week, when we will be shoveling again, or when you're late to work, don't get angry. McInerney says "Essentially, our water supply comes from the mountains; if we didn't have mountains and the snowpack, we couldn't live the way we do."

You can find more information on our snowpack and runoff by going to the related link.

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