Name: Why the rain might set up Utah for future water problems
Uploaded: 2026-01-08T03:30:26.539Z
Duration: 2 min 22 s
Description: Why the rain might set up Utah for future water problems

Why the rain might set up Utah for future water problems

Utah

Utah is experiencing record warm winter temperatures, resulting in rain rather than snow across much of the state. While precipitation levels appear healthy, experts warn that the lack of snowpack could lead to water shortages in the spring and summer, as snowpack serves as a natural reservoir that gradually releases water.

Climatologists note that rain, unlike snow, runs off or soaks in quickly and does not provide the same long-term water storage. Mid-elevation and central Utah snowpacks are especially low, and continued rain in place of snow could make it difficult for the state to recover its water reserves.

Record warm temperatures in the valleys and rain falling instead of snow has helped a lot of the rain gauges across much of the state. Some of the grass behind me even turning green and for January maybe some of us are talking about mowing instead of shoveling snow. I'm Utah's weather authority Nate Larson and we look up in the mountain areas it's a different picture. The story changes fast. Snowpack levels are still very low for this time of year and some experts say that the rain actually falling now with our storms could be setting us up for water problems later this year. Utah measures its water year from October through September and so far three months in much of the state has picked up a healthy amount of precipitation but much of it has fallen as rain instead of snow and while that helps on paper it's not the kind of water the state relies on heading into spring and summer. The last storm cycle was actually really good we went from 55 to 75 percent over the last week so it has actually improved quite a bit just from one storm cycle which shows the sensitivity of our seasonal averages to individual events. That jump is encouraging but climatologists say how precipitation falls matters just as much as how much. That we are fairly concerned about for looking forward for drought impacts next year, water availability, reservoir levels because a gallon of rainwater delivered in the middle of winter is not the same as a gallon of water in the snowpack that melts in April and May. Snow acts like a natural reservoir releasing water slowly as temperatures warm. Rain on the other hand runs off quickly or soaks in before it can be stored. Our mid elevation snowpack even in those same areas is poor and then you get into central Utah and the snowpack is almost non-existent it's terrible. And recent storms haven't helped much bringing rain across elevations that would normally be building snowpack. Feels like we are getting precipitation the rain gauges are great our grass is green we're not shoveling we're looking at mowing instead but from a water resource point of view our spring and summer is looking quite pinched based on where we currently stand. There is still time for improvement of course Utah has had worse years than this one at this point but the longer rain replaces snow the harder it becomes to recover. I'm meteorologist Nate Larson Fox 13 News Utah

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