The best start of a new year is to have snow in our mountains! Thanks to some December storms, we are looking at a better water year this year and we hope the lakes and reservoirs will begin to inch up and away from their record lows.
Our efforts with water conservation must not be overlooked and we expect our State Legislature to discuss long-term solutions to Utah’s water crisis in the upcoming Legislative Session.
Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) measures the amount of water that is in the mountain snowpack if that snow was melted. Three feet of fresh, fluffy snow equals 4-5 inches of SWE while 3 feet of compacted wet snow can contain 12 inches of SWE.
According to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service the Weber-Ogden Basin is at 163% of the Median SNOTEL (Reported 12/15/22). This is good news for our water situation and we are hopeful that the snow continues, water levels improve, and we conserve our water use where possible.