Drought creates water doubts
Drought.
Utah State University students may be affected by it this summer.
Donald Jensen, director of the USU Utah Climate Center, said as the numbers from the season come in, students should be aware the drought may get worse before it gets better.
“We have been in a drought for three plus years. We will continue this drought for at least the next three to four years, possibly even as much as 10 years,” he said.
There will be wet spells along the way, but they will not end the drought, Jensen said.
While some people have said this is the worst drought on record, he said, it isn’t even close. Droughts from the 1930s and 1960s or even the late 1800s were worse than what Utah is facing now.
“We will certainly have enough water to drink, and all of the reservoirs will fill this year, with the exception of Bear Lake, Flaming Gorge and Lake Powell,” Jensen said.
March will be wetter than February, he said. April will also be wet. This is normal for the northern part of Utah, Jensen said.
“We are in a desert, so it is typical to go from a dry season to a wet season. We go through these things all the time,” he said.
Sterling Poulson, KUTV meteorologist, said Utah needs to be a little more conscious of how it uses water.
Water recreation parks may have to cut back on their usage, he said.
In addition, “I think people need to think about how they landscape,” he said. “They need not worry about their lush, green lawns.”
Jensen recommended storing buckets of water.
If Utah doesn’t get enough water, he said, officials cannot turn to other states for help. They have their own water problems.
But Cache Valley residents should have enough, because it has five wells that are in pretty good shape to store water, Jensen said.
Still, Poulson said, Utah is at 65 percent of its normal precipitation. Logan got 4.7 inches from October to January, compared with its usual 6.79 inches, according to the Utah Climate Center.
“If [Utah has] normal precipitation in March and April, we should be OK, and if we have a wet summer, that will help also,” Poulson said. “The patterns for March look a little better.”
But the weather patterns haven’t changed, he said. It’s the population that is affecting the water shortage.
There weren’t as many people living in Utah in the late 1800s as today, Poulson said. The drought may have been worse back then, but water has to be distributed to a lot more people now.
Ted Seeholzer, owner of Beaver Mountain Ski Resort, said his resort has seen a shortage of people.
This year has been different from all the rest, he said. Beaver Mountain has reported about 80 inches of snow, compared with the normal 62. But the warmer January temperatures have turned skiers away.
“We consider what we think the year is going to be before we start spending money,” Seeholzer said. “I don’t know if you get used to [the drought]. You live with it.”
The snow pack is now above 7,000 feet, which is high enough for it to freeze and stay on standby until it can melt for summertime.
Seeholzer said there is a lot more moisture in March snow than in January snow. The resort usually gets one inch of water for every 12 inches of snow in January. It takes eight inches of snow to make one inch of water in March.
–bbnichols@cc.usu.edu