Early Flooding 2017

The first major flooding incidents in Utah Valley are purely man-made.

The gates of the seldom-used spillway at Deer Creek Reservoir were opened.

KSL reports on warnings from the NWS about release of excess water from Deer Creek Reservoir into the Provo River.

In order to provide better control for spring runoff, the water management administrators decided to allow excess flow from Deer Creek Reservoir now.  The spillway and dam hydro facilities were opened to bleed off some of the totally full reserves.

Over the weekend, this resulted in flooding all along the Provo River down to Utah Lake.

Water roaring over the weir at the collection dam near Nunn's Park.

The popular riverside trail through Provo Canyon was later closed as parts of the pavement was undercut by the river current and fell into the rushing waters.

Deseret News article on the canyon trail closure.  SLTrib also mentions.

If this is the full extent of flood damage, residents of Utah County have dodged the bullet.

Utah Snowpack 2017 - 3 May Edition

Utah snow pack in our mountains has peaked and is beginning the season runoff.  As the snow melts down from the highest mountains, some of the snow totals indicated by Snotel monitoring are still quite deep.

Mammoth-Cottonwood, my reference point.  This graph plots Snow Water Equivalent and Precipitation Accumulation for 2017 and 2016. Although significant snow melt has already taken place this spring, the remaining accumulation is still about even with the total from last year. Within the past couple of weeks, the precipitation accumulation has continued a steep climb.

The most recent view of snow and water at Gardner Peak in the southwest corner of Utah shows snow melt tapering off, and precipitation totals comparable with last year at this time.

At Mammoth Pass in California, the melt of the immense snow pack from this season is just showing early signs.  It is likely to challenge local flood control resource beyond limit.

And again, for scale, Ben Lomond Peak in northern Utah has started early runoff, but still holds enormous potential.

Watch out, it's on the way!

More commentary from Los Angeles

Utah Snowpack 2017 - 1 April Edition

Utah Snowpack in our mountains continues to pile on as the season nears closing.  Some of the snow totals indicated by Snotel monitoring are quite prodigious.

The Mammoth-Cottonwood monitoring site on the Sanpete Skyline has been my reference point since I lived near there, starting 15 years ago.  This graph plots Snow Water Equivalent and Precipitation Accumulation for 2017 and 1016.  Indication is that although significant snow melt has already started this spring, the accumulation amounts to about twice as much as last year at this time. A spring melting trend started about mid-March, but was then halted in the last week of March with an upward trend from new spring snow.  More than two feet of snow water equivalent remains to run off.  The steep rise of precipitation accumulation continues as it compares with last year's data.

This comparative graph from the South West corner of Utah shows tracking for Gardner Peak, which is still significantly ahead of last year's accumulations, but not by much.  There has always been a great deal of local variation across the State of Utah.

This awesome plot compares Snow Water Equivalent from the Mammoth Pass area of central California.  Every indication is that California with simply wash into the ocean with the spring runoff, which has not even commenced at this location.  The Snow Water Equivalent is more than twice the maximum from last year, and shows no sign of slacking off yet this year.  The current snow pack will yield more than six FEET of water when it melts.

We are not embarrassed by the huge snowfall accumulation in California.  In the Utah mountains north of Ogden, the station on Ben Lomond accumulated some of the highest totals.  An early meltdown reduced the total somewhat, but it still shows an enormous runoff potential, nearly as great as the California snow pack.

Get ready, 'cause here it comes!