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Utah’s snowpack levels remain below average

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Visitors to Bryce Canyon National Park walk in a closed-off area covered in snow at Bryce Point as the government shutdown continues on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. While the park is open on a limited basis, some locations remained uncleared of snow and/or closed.

Ogden • Officials say snow levels in Utah remain below the state’s typical average despite a wet winter.

The Standard-Examiner reports the National Resource Conservation Service says Utah’s snowpack is near normal at 92 percent, compared with 51 percent in 2018.

The agency, in its January Utah Climate and Water Report, says this year’s snow water equivalent, or SWE, in Utah is also just below normal and “after the roller coaster winters we’ve had lately, we’ll gladly take an average water year.”

The report says northern Utah’s SWE levels are between 90 percent and 100 percent of normal, with the Weber and Ogden River Basin coming in at 93 percent.

Precipitation in December in the Weber and Ogden River Basin was below average at 55 percent.

Meanwhile, reservoir storage is at 49 percent of capacity compared with 73 percent last year.