State facing too little snow in north and too much in the south


6 photos
Save Story
Leer en espaƱol

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

NORTHERN UTAH -- One of Utah's most popular winter attractions is shutting down early because there just hasn't been enough winter. It illustrates how bad our snowpack is and the tough decisions water managers will have to make later this year.

The Hardware Ranch in Cache County is calling it quits for the season on Monday. They're shutting down two weeks early after a less than ideal season. It's because the elk that draw 30,000 people a year are heading for the hills, just as if winter was over.

Visitors get a sleigh ride, but this year it's really been a wagon ride -- they've had to use wheels instead of runners. Hundreds of elk gather there for winter feeding. It's a state handout to keep them from raiding haystacks in Cache Valley. But they're already itching to move onto bare mountain slopes where vegetation is exposed.

Dan Christensen, superintendent of Hardware Ranch, said, "Normally this time of year we would still have about 30 inches of snow on Hardware Ranch. We've used up the snow here. The open hillsides and the combination of that, and then having very little snow on the meadow, makes it so that, even more than normal, these elk want to pick up and leave the ranch every night."

Throughout northern Utah, the snowpack is the worst in eight years, 60 to 70 percent of average. Conversely, southern Utah has huge snowpacks. We're stuck in a classic El Nino pattern, and the odds of recovery are very low in northern Utah, according to Randy Julander of the Utah Snow Survey.

"Your probabilities of getting back to average at this point are far less than 10 percent, and in most cases, less than three percent," Julander said.

Winter may not be over, as the elk may suggest, but northern Utah may have most of the snow it's going to get.

"There's a silver lining in all of this, and that's reservoir storage. Reservoir storage across the north is extremely good," Julander said.

That presents water managers with tough choices as we move into the watering season. Should we gamble on a good winter next time, or prepare for a bad one?

"The hedge comes in, how much of that bank account, that reserve, do we use this year in anticipation of what might happen next year?" Julander said.

On the other side of the coin, southern Utah may have to worry about flooding if heavy rain comes during the snowmelt. They're launching studies in the next couple of weeks to assess that issue down south.

E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
John Hollenhorst

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast