Experts weigh in on sluggish start to Northern Utah’s snow season

SALT LAKE COUNTY — Northern Utah snowpacks have been off to a sluggish start so far this season, but a hydrologist said Monday it was still very early and the situation could still easily reverse itself in early 2025.

Glen Merrill, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service’s Salt Lake City office, said snowpacks so far in Northern Utah are in the range of 60 to 70% of average for the time of year.

“(It’s) really one of the slower starts we’ve seen in some number of years,” Merrill told KSL TV.

Other parts of the state have fared better, Merrill acknowledged.

He said Central Utah snowpacks are approximately 120% of average, while snowpacks in Eastern Utah are close to average in the early season.

Statewide, Merrill said snowpacks are currently calculated to be roughly 86 % of average.

According to Merrill, the 2024-25 snowpacks were still in their “toddler” phase, and what happens from January through March will be more telling about the season.

“It can change—it can actually change on a dime,” Merrill said. “Just because we start slow—again, in certain parts of the state—doesn’t mean that we’re going to stay slow throughout the remainder of the winter.”

Merrill said long-range weather models tend to point toward an uptick in moisture for Northern Utah, but not until after the first of the year.

“It looks like as we get into January, February and March, kind of the global weather pattern is looking more favorable for not necessarily huge storms infrequently, but more frequent, small storms coming from the Northwest, so that especially favors Northern Utah moving forward,” he said.

Still, other weather-watchers were skeptical of a massive change this winter.

“This year something tells me that might not happen,” said KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson.

“The number one rule in forecasting is persistence,” Johnson explained. “What’s happening will continue to happen and it’s sometimes hard to get out of that rut.”

Both experts agreed it was still very early at this point in the season, although recent history seems to point to something other than an above-average year for snowpack in Northern Utah — especially after 2023’s record year and last year’s totals that were considered well above average.

“It’s rare to have back-to-back-to-back above-normal seasons,” Merrill said. “We haven’t seen that since the mid-90s.”

Merrill said regardless of the start to this year’s snow season, reservoirs remain in good shape after the past two years — staying on average about 20% above where they normally sit right now.

He said the main impacts were currently to ski resorts and other commercial interests in Northern Utah snow.

Snowboarders Ryann Winward and Jada Hale said they took advantage of some new powder that showed up Monday morning at higher elevations in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

“It’s been a very dry year compared to last year and the year before,” Winward said.

The two were hopeful the situation would reverse itself in the weeks and months to come.

“We’re praying for more snow,” Winward said. “We want more powder days.”