It's been a good winter for Utah's snowpack. But how does it compare to other years?
It will take a lot for us to come anywhere near Utah's biggest-ever year for snowpack and flooding.
In 1983, water left destructive debris all over Bountiful. Meanwhile, volunteers in Pleasant Grove sandbagged to divert water in Utah County. Road crews in Vernal and Panguitch scrambled to make Memorial Day travel possible.
In Salt Lake City, underground diversions couldn't handle the onslaught. State Street became a river.
So, what made 1983 so off the charts?
"We held on to the snow way later than we typically do before we start bringing it down in the mountains," explained Glen Merrill, the hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake.
It stuck around later and it was a record-high snowpack... then it all came down.
"Memorial Day weekend in 1983, [the temperature] all of a sudden jumped up into the 90s in the valley and it stayed there. And all that snow that held on late into the year came down at once," Merrill said.
Normally, snow starts its spring melt in early April, and the higher elevations are depleted by mid-June. That's 71 days, or just under two and a half months.
In 1983, the snow was near its peak on May 20. Sudden high temperatures accelerated the process, and the snow had melted by July 10 — 51 days. It was a lot more snow in a lot less time.
FOX 13 News asked Merrill how likely it would be for such a phenomenon to happen this year.
"The chances for all those things to come to get together at one time are pretty slim," he said.
There are three questions that Merrill poses when considering this:
- When will the snowpack peak? May 20 was an extreme in 1983.
- How much snow will we get? It's already a big snow year, but nowhere near 1983's high.
- When does Mother Nature turn on the heat? And will it be gradual or sudden?
Even if we see 1983 conditions, we likely won't see 1983's damage.
"Since 1983, absolutely a lot was learned," Merrill said. "There's been significant amount of improvements to systems and storage."
Merrill mentioned that we might not think about our reservoirs themselves in terms of flood control, but that's exactly what they are. Jordanelle wasn't there in 1983, and it helps hold back the Provo River. Little Dell helps control runoff out of the mountains above Salt Lake County.
