SALT LAKE CITY — It's been 40 years since flood waters overtook Utah, damaging cities across the state and notably turning State Street in Salt Lake City into a river.
In 1983, the snowpack was at its near peak when sudden high temperatures caused a cascade of melting snow and water to flood many cities.
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Utahns who lived in the area at the time will never forget the destruction and massive amounts of water that flowed through the streets.
Beau James Burgess is a historian and collector and says he has some actual water from the flooding 40 years ago.
"Somebody thought, and good on them...you know, whether their intent was preservation or making a quick buck, they preserved literal water from the flood of '83," Burgess explained. "Here we are 40 years later and you can hear this water and feel it sloshing around. Obviously, you don't want to drink it. It says 'contents hazardous, do not drink.' But it's something that makes it tangible."
As Utah once again saw record-breaking amounts of snow and rain over the winter and spring seasons, many have questioned if flooding will compare to that of 1983.
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Even with 2023's gigantic snowpack, it comes nowhere near what the state experienced in 1983.
FOX 13 News previously reported that aside from the large quantity of snow in 1983 that peaked late in the season, cold temperatures made it stick around for much longer than it typically would.
Then, all of a sudden, temperatures jumped into the 90s on Memorial Day weekend of 1983 and the snow came rushing down the mountains.
Even if this year's snowpack was comparable, experts and city officials have said infrastructure has changed in the last 40 years to ensure that kind of destruction won't happen again.
Drain systems have been upgraded and culverts have been upgraded to divert water away from residential areas.
In Salt Lake City, Little Dell reservoir was created in the time since the destructive flooding in order to prevent destruction from happening again.
