File photo: A marker buoy is grounded on the dried-up shore of Echo Reservoir at Echo State Park during a drought on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Photo: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah heads into its new “water year,” which runs October 1 to September 30, much better off in terms of soil moisture than expected when the year began.
Experts say that’s good news moving into next year’s snow season.
Jordan Clayton, Utah’s snow survey supervisor, told KSL TV the more moisture the ground has, the better it is when snow run-off occurs in the spring.
“When we got the monsoonal rains, it was unusually strong this year,” Clayton said.
That helped Utah with better moisture in our soil than just 6 weeks previous.
The bad news is our reservoirs are less than 50% full. “It’s pretty low for this time of year and definitely lower than it was last year.” said Clayton.
Clayton also stated we can’t expect to get back to normal with just one snow season. He said it’s going to take some really big snow falls over the next several years in order to get our reservoirs back to normal levels.
More rain and snow are needed this year as we are ending this water year in bottom 10th percentile.
Check out the full story from KSL TV for video and more details.