Where is the snow?

Though it’s still early in the season, it’s clear that this winter isn’t shaping up to be the record-breaking one that Utah saw last year.

But there are 105 days left until Utah’s typical peak snowpack in early April, so all hope is not lost. “At this point in the year, we’re cautiously optimistic,” Laura Haskell, an engineer at the Utah Division of Water Resources, told The Salt Lake Tribune.

“The forecasts do lean towards more snow in the next three months,” Haskell said, “but unfortunately, they also lean towards warmer temperatures.”

Warmer temperatures can cause snowpack to melt early, causing water to soak into the ground or trickle into streams and rivers before it can make it to the reservoirs.

This time last year, the state’s reservoir levels stood at approximately 12% below normal. But after Utah’s record snowpack, they’re 20% higher than normal right now.

“So we do have a little bit of breathing room if we don’t have great snow this year,” Haskell said.

Utah gets about 95% of its water supply from snow, Haskell said, so the Utah Division of Water Resources closely tracks the statewide Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), which reports the water content in snow.

The statewide Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) currently is about 15% below normal. But since that measurement spans the state, it’s worth taking a closer look.

In the Bear River Basin, the northern part of the state, SWE is 8% higher than usual for this time of year. But southern Utah’s SWE is 70% lower than what it would normally be for late December.