St. George • Southwest Utah’s water outlook this year has been a mixed bag.
The region has received 150% of normal precipitation in the first three-and-a-half months of the water year, which began in October, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. But warm temperatures have left little snow in the mountains surrounding Washington and Iron counties.
“The overall snow-water equivalent is about 56% of normal,” said Jordan Clayton, supervisor of the Utah Snow Survey. “To put that into perspective, that’s about the 23rd percentile, which implies we have seen better snow conditions in those areas three-quarters of the time.”
Still, Clayton added, that’s a marked improvement from the snowpack recorded in the southwestern Utah mountains a year ago, when the snow-water equivalent that measures the amount of water the snowpack contains was 23% of average.
“That improvement doesn’t say much,” said Clayton, who noted last winter was one of the driest on record and set a low bar for subsequent years.
The current water year got off to a lively start throughout Utah, with one of the wettest Octobers on record, according to Monica Traphagan, a senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Salt Lake City office. Alas, that roll was largely slowed by drier conditions over November and December.
“It’s been an unusually warm water year,” she said “We just haven’t had much snow, except for the highest elevations. Looking at the future, we don’t see much relief in sight. So we have some concerns as we head into the rest of the water year.”
A silver lining
One silver lining to the area’s above-average rainfall is the soil moisture in the mountains. Clayton noted that soil-moisture levels are currently at 170% of normal, a significant increase from the 58% recorded last year. Although snow would be preferable to rain, he added, the higher-than-average precipitation and wetter soil will contribute to a more efficient spring runoff, allowing more water to flow downstream into the region’s reservoirs.
Despite the poor start to winter snowpack, Clayton said it wouldn’t take all that much to turn it around.
“Just two really good storms or a series of smaller ones would put us back on track, or at least bring us close to normal,” Clayton said.
Whatever Mother Nature brings, Washington County Water Conservancy District manager Zach Renstrom said the district can weather it.
Thanks to above-average precipitation, Gunlock reservoir is full. Sand Hollow and Quail Creek stand at 79% and 68% capacity, respectively. Washington County is now immersed in moderate drought. A year ago, nearly 55% of the county was in severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
“Even though the water we have received hasn’t necessarily been in a snowstorm or snowfall, we have been able to capture it and store it in our reservoirs,” Renstrom said. “The fact that the soil is so moist means we will be able to capture more water in the reservoirs than if the [soil] was really dry and just seeped into the ground.”