“Parts of Utah Could Be Removed from Drought Status in Light of Heavy Precipitation.” UPR Utah Public Radio, 4 Jan. 2023, https://www.upr.org/utah-news/2023-01-04/parts-of-utah-could-be-removed-from-drought-status-in-light-of-heavy-precipitation.
When | Why |
---|---|
Mar-02-23 | U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook |
Mar-02-23 | Drought update from drought.utah.gov (2/21/23) |
For months, Utah has been in a heavy drought, but the high amount of snowfall and rainstorms lately could prove to change that status for certain parts of the state.
The latest seasonal drought outlook from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center reveals that a few small portions of the state could be completely removed from drought status. Due to heavy precipitation over the past few weeks, areas like St. George, Cedar City, and Moab could be removed.
However, while those areas are expected to be removed from their drought status, the large majority of the state will remain in their current conditions. Fortunately, all this precipitation is showing a vast improvement from what Utah was experiencing just months ago and shows that things are moving in the right direction.
The new drought monitor is expected to be released on Thursday with the latest monitor map having been released on December 27, showing a little over 31% of the state being in extreme drought. A year prior, 70% of the state was in extreme drought.
Added March 02, 2023 at 3:26pm
by Christopher Sloan
Title: U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook
Added March 02, 2023 at 3:35pm
by Christopher Sloan
Title: Drought update from drought.utah.gov (2/21/23)
Logging in, please wait...
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
This is improvement
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
A lot of people have been concerned with the decreasing level of the Great Salt Lake since it was at a historic low. See this CNN article from Jan. 2023: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/us/great-salt-lake-disappearing-drought-climate/index.html The fact that it’s already above the historic low even before the spring runoff is good news. But I’d like to find out how much the lake is expected to rise as a result of the big snowfall this year.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
According to the Utah Division of Water Resources, “When snowpack melts in the spring, the lake usually rises about 2 feet. In years with above-average snowpack, it can go up 3 to 4 feet. In 2022 and 2021, the elevation only went up about 1 foot because of the poor snowpack.”
The article also says that in July 2022 the level was at 4190. The highest it’s ever been was 4,211 in 1986. So by my calculations the level could rise to 4,215 or 4,216. Not great, but a few feet above the historical low anyway.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
the berm seems a lot lower than the lake level. Berm is being raised to 4,192 but the all-time low is 4,211. What am I not getting here?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
General Document Comments 0