Let's stick with the weather theme for a moment,
shall we? What happens when rain falls on the snowpack?
BYU professor and hydrologist Jim Nielsen says the rain and
snow in the mountains.
That's a positive sign for Utah,
right? We need the moisture.
But one of the challenges with these rain on snow
events is that the flood risk is hard to forecast.
Thankfully, Utah not in that situation right now.
The rain is going to melt the snow.
I mean, it's warmer. And so that heat transfer ends
up resulting in snow melt.
And that's OK, All of the water is going to
melt and come down at some point.
Obviously, some of the worst floods in our areas can
happen when we have a lot of snow that's ripe
and ready to melt and then we get rain.
I don't think we're in that situation currently,
All right, so that's good news,
Professor Nelson says. Last year we had a lot of
storage capacity in the reservoirs because we've had several years
of drought,
right? But he says we definitely need a few more
storms to maintain moderate water levels across Utah.