JORDANELLE RESERVOIR, Utah — Utah’s extremely dry spring has hydrologists urging water conservation this summer.
"It's been a disappointing couple of months in terms of our precipitation and snow pack,” Utah Snow Survey’s Jordan Clayton said.
The dry and slightly warmer weather in March, April and May put the breaks on what could have been another great snow year.
Luckily, reservoirs are still in decent shape thanks to the prior year's "outstanding" snow pack.
Looking at water levels across the state, Utah Lake is at 99 percent capacity, Bear Lake is 74 percent and Lake Powell at just 48 percent.
These numbers aren’t expected improve, according to Clayton.
"The water that we have in our reservoirs and in our streams is going to be the amount of water, by and large, that we have through next spring. We aren't going to get much more water until we get next year's snow melt runoff,” said Clayton.
Clayton urges Utahns to be cautious with how we use water this summer.
"We want to be able to hold onto as much water as we can until the following year,” said Clayton.
A good way to conserve is limiting how often lawns are watered. For nearly all of Utah, experts say it’s only necessary to water once or twice a week in late May.
