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SALT LAKE CITY -- The last week and a half, it seems we've been on the same weather roller coaster: Dark, ominous clouds; rain; thunder; lightning; then sunshine.
Make no mistake: it's been a stormy June. In fact, this has been the wettest June in four years. So why has this month been so wet?
"[My] personal opinion is typically we get a real big high pressure area that builds just off the coast of California. That high tends to shield Utah from all the storms. It sends them into the Pacific Northwest and north of Utah into Montana and Wyoming," said KSL Chief Meteorologist Kevin Eubank. "This year, that high is absent. It's to the south, and so we've kind of gotten a wide-open door that takes anything in the Pacific and just streams right into the state of Utah."
That means we're getting drenched. In fact, we're sitting 110 percent above what's normal in rainfall for the month of June, and we're only nine days in. "It looks like, for the foreseeable future, we're going to stay there," Eubank said.
It's good news for the state's water reservoirs. "2008 and 2009 have been very good -- normal to above-normal runoff -- and we're at full capacity for the reservoirs, for the most part," said Bryan McInerny, hydrologist with the National Weather Service.
But the big impact on water runoff hasn't been the rain. "The big impact was the snow we got during the winter. So, the snow storms that were in March and April actually brought our snowpack up to above average," said Jeff Biermeyer, director of public utilities for Salt Lake County.
With a winter-like spring and a wet June, what's ahead? "I would imagine that when this pattern changes, it will get extra hot, extra dry and it will last for some time," Eubank said.
Bottom line: Enjoy the cool wet weather while it lasts.
E-mail: lprichard@ksl.com
