Winter is over. I repeat. Winter is over.
Meteorological winter that is, covering December to February. I could talk about the snow to come, but the forecast has changed little. Periods of snow for the forseeable future. Enjoy.
So let's look back and look at some stats, starting with the Salt Lake City International airport.
The average temperature for this winter was 33.0˚F. That slots in as the 49th warmest out of 149 winters in the period of record. No biggie in that regard.
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| Source: https://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/ |
I get a lot of gripes about the observations from the airport, but if we look at Bountiful Bench, with complete records back to 1975, it rates as the 20th warmest out of 49 winters. Still above median. Basically, the winter hasn't been unusually cold or warm. It's just a bit above median for temperature.
How about snow? For this, I'll look at the period from October 1. We'll call this the water year through February. The airport slots in with 56.4". That's the most snow we have had for the water year to date since the 2013 water year and rates as 24th out of 139 seasons in the period of record.
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| Source: https://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/ |
There is an asterisk though. Snowfall records are not as complete (hence 139 seasons rather than 149 for temperature) and there are a few seasons that have some missing days, including this one which is missing one day (yesterday...I'm not sure why...and that might add an inch or two).
In any event, it's been snowy, although a couple of weeks ago the airport numbers were not as impressive for snow as we discussed in a previous post. The big storm on February 22 helped push us a bit up the list.
A lot of people have asked me about the benches. Again I'll use Bountiful Bench only because it has a complete record back to 1975. So far the snowfall there is 113", good for 10th out of 49 years. That's pretty good. The record for the water year to date at that site is 174.7" in 1993.
Of course in the mountains the snowpack is fat. Relative to observations from 1991–2020, snowpack water equivalent at basins across Utah ranges from 135% (Upper Bear) to 325% (Lower Virgin) of median.
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| Source: NRCS |
For watersheds covering northern Utah ski areas, the numbers range from 142% to 165%. For the Jordan, which covers the western portion of the central Wasatch, we are just a shade below the highest since 1990 with an average of 28 inches of snowpack water equivalent at the eight snotel observing sites in the basin. If you are wondering, the highest is from the 1997 water year (28.4 inches).
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| Source: NRCS |
By and large, a very very good situation. If you are looking for a reason for heartburn, here's one. The Bear River is the biggest tributary of the Great Salt Lake, and the snowpack is not quite as exceptional there (but still well above median). For instance, below is the situation in the upper Bear. Average SWE is 17.4 inches, which is pretty good for the year to date, but still only 92% of the median peak [indicated by green X...and higher than the daily median (green line), which smooths out the peak].
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| Source: NRCS |
By and large, the forecast continues to look good for the forseeable future, so we should be adding to these numbers over the next 7 to 10 days. Enjoy!
One thing nobody mentions is that Bear Lake is basically a reservoir. Currently it is at 5910 ft elevation; full tub is 5923.65 ft elevation. That’s a13 foot deficit. And the GSL is at historic lows. The Bear River is diverted into Bear Lake at the north end in Idaho, then subsequently released as needed by agricultural interests. Seems like water managers have a Solomon dilemma. Split the baby or favor one body of water over the other.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing nobody mentions is that roughly 60% of Bear River flows through Wyoming and Idaho. Do you think all of those ranchers/farmers are going to change their behaviors to protect the GSL? Maybe. We’ll have to wait and see.