However, it's an improvement from the 20 water years that produced 9.18 and 10.46 inches of water, respectively. Salt Lake City, for instance, enters the final day of the water year having collected 13.14 inches of precipitation over the past 12 months, 2.34 inches below the 30-year normal of 15.48 inches.īarring final day precipitation, it will be the 41st driest water year on record for the city since 1874, per weather service records. –Haskell, Utah Division of Water ResourcesĪvailable National Weather Service data offers a better window into the final water year's precipitation totals. There was a little bit of good, some bad, and it kind of all meshed together to be kind of meh. The 30-year normal is 13.46 inches, according to National Centers for Environmental Information data.Ĭoming on the heels of the drought years, (the 2022 water year) didn't really make the situation a lot better. The final statewide figure is still being calculated, but Utah ended August with an average of 10.73 inches, putting the state on pace for its 34th driest water year since 1895. "There was a little bit of good, some bad, and it kind of all meshed together to be kind of meh." "Coming on the heels of the drought years, it didn't really make the situation a lot better," said Haskell, the drought coordinator for the Utah Division of Water Resources. The record heat in between the monsoonal events also hurt totals.Īdd it all up, and it wasn't a terrible water year, but it also wasn't a great one. Some wintry spring storms did help water levels for the northern half of Utah however, Utah's final 2022 snowpack ended up about 75% of normal, not enough to fully recharge the state's struggling reservoirs.Ī mostly normal monsoon season helped precipitation totals, especially in the southern and central parts of the state, but those numbers didn't impact Utah's reservoirs much. Utah posted its third-driest January on record and the start of Feburary wasn't great, either. That well of water essentially shut off after the first week of the calendar year, though. The water year, which began in October 2021, started out very strong, leaving Utah's snowpack - the amount of water held in the snow that falls in the state's mountains - well above average heading into the actual 2022 calendar year. SALT LAKE CITY - Laura Haskell finds it difficult to describe the 2022 water year because it has been all over the place.
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