Meteorological winter, which includes December, January, and February, ended yesterday. In the Salt Lake Valley, it wasn't much of a winter. The average temperature at the Salt Lake City International Airport was about 36.4°F, making it about the 7th warmest on record*. The asterisk is because there appear to be two days missing from the records I can access, so those numbers could change slightly.
Snowfall was scant with only 10.4". A day is missing for the snowfall records too, although I believe the total is probably right (the missing day was likely snow free). This is the third lowest on record behind 2014/15 (6.0") and 1962/63 (8.8").
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| Source: https://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/ |
The SNOTEL data in the central Wasatch has been a bit squirrelly this year, but for end of meteorological winter snowpack, most sites are a bit below average including Snowbird (90%), Brighton (88%), Thaynes (73%), and Parley's Summit (95%). Mill D North sits at 118% and is the high outlier.
All of the data discussed above is collected by the NOAA/National Weather Service and National Resources Conservation Service. Media reports suggest firings occurred in both of these agencies prior to and during this past week. Additional employees in both agencies opted for the "Fork in the Road" buyout. I haven't seen official numbers, but I've seen some estimates suggesting that the NWS lost about 10% of their workforce. It is my impression that nearly everyone in the weather, water, and climate enterprise, which spans the government, private, and academic sectors, believes this will reduce the Nation's capacity to anticipate, prepare, and respond to weather and related hazards as we enter severe weather, hurricane, and wildfire season. It will also affect the Nation's ability to advance the prediction of weather and water related hazards in the long term.
