Utah spring runoff begins weeks early

LOGAN, Utah – With high winds and snow forecasted through Wednesday, Utah climatologists said the spring runoff has already started and that can make for a longer dry season.

It’s part of a long trend that climatologists have been watching at the Utah Climate Center at Utah State University.

This is not the first time the snowpack started to melt early but tack that onto the third year of significant drought and we’re very likely going to feel it as we move into Fall.

Climatologists said it’s a trend that’s been happening on and off over the past several decades.

We’re going to need every bit of that runoff as many Utah reservoirs started the season well below what they were a year ago.

Willard Bay for example is 60% lower.

“Being as water-conscious as possible right now is really important,” said Jon Meyer at the Utah Climate Center.

With the runoff underway about three weeks ahead of schedule a longer dry season will add to a difficult drought cycle.

“And our reservoir systems are built to get us through these types of events, but you can’t, you can’t continue to tack on year after year of below-average streamflow in reservoir recharge before, you know, you really start to run into real problems,” Meyer said.

It’s not the first time Utah has seen early runoff. It’s a pattern the climate center has monitored since the early 80s. What’s unusual this year is the strong start we saw in October followed by very little snow.

“And we see this feast or famine type of period where you get huge jumps up and then the flatline for January and February,” he explained.

As these early melt-offs continue to come and go Meyer warned we need to cut back on our everyday water use.

“Not every year is going to be a drought but the more frequency of droughts that we see, the further we stress our water resources on a large scale,” Meyer explained.

He added while climatologists have watched these early melt-offs for four decades they have started earlier.