Happy New Years from the Wasatch Weather Weenies.
2025 is now in the rearview and I'm not sad to see it go. It was a tough year for science, higher eduction, the climate system, and at least for the start of the 2025/26 ski season, snow.
Let's begin with the Murderer's Row of climate statistics for Salt Lake City.
First, 2025 was the warmest year on record (since 1875) with an averge temperature of 57.9°F.
The last 3 months of the year and the first 3 months of the 2026 water year (Oct-Dec) were also the warmest on record, with an average temperature of 48.9°F.
And of course December was the warmest on record with an average temperature of 43.7°F.
Shifting gears to the mountains and focusing on the past three month, water-year-to-date precipitation (water equivalent) is actually not all that bad. Many stations are within 90 to 109% of median (green) and those that are lower than that are withing 90 to 89% of median.
As shown for Snowbird, a big contributor was the early October rains. Those were followed by a long dry stretch in late October and November. December precipitation though hasn't been all that bad.
The problem, however, is warmth. The early October precipitation was mostly rain. Even at upper elevations, it didn't add up to much. Then the precipitation we have had this month has occurred with exceptional warmth for December. Natural snow cover below 8000 feet is currently scant due to a significant fraction of December precipitation falling as rain instead of snow. Even above 10000 feet you can find a rain crust in the central Wasatch from the post-Christmas storm. Snowmaking conditions have been limited.
And today snow levels will eventually get to about 8500 feet.
So, the story of 2025 in northern Utah was warmth, warmth, warmth. Good riddance. Let's hope 2026 is better.
From a overall h20 perspective, reservoirs/aquafer refilling, does it matter if the wasatch precip comes in as rain or snow?
ReplyDeleteTypically snow is better than rain. The snowpack is the first reservoir.
ReplyDelete