SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 24, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Friday’s spring snowstorm pushed Utah’s snowpack to its largest total in 71 years, federal water officials said.
Utah’s statewide snow water equivalent, or SWE, reached 26.1 inches on Friday, topping the 26-inch mark from the 1983 water year and giving the state its largest snowpack since 1952, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture‘s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
NCRS Utah tweeted the record-breaking total Friday afternoon, saying weather stations in the snow telemetry, or SNOTEL, network “reached an average of 26.1 inches.”
“This year now appears to have the largest snowpack since 1952, and in case you haven’t [noticed], it’s STILL snowing!”
Officials with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City said it’s the highest SWE since automated records started in 1981. Manual records date back to 1920, and 26.1 inches ranks as the largest since 1952, according to the NCRS.
The conservation service uses a network of more than 900 SNOTEL weather stations to collect snow and water data in remote, high-elevation mountain watersheds in the western U.S.
Utah’s snowpack total can be tracked here.
Heavy Snow