OGDEN, Utah — I visited the South Fork of the Ogden River to look at four critical aspects that help us understand drought conditions in northern Utah. All of the information here comes from the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA, and the Bureau of Reclamation.
Snow
The monitoring stations for snow water equivalent in the Weber Basin hit 0% on May 30. That's earlier than normal. Of course, when you look at the mountains, you still see high pockets of snow, but it's not significant storage at this point.
And that gets us to the second aspect of measuring our water situation.
Stream Flow
What I'm seeing here at the South Fork of the Ogden River tells the story clearly. Right now, the river is running at 72.3 cubic feet per second. To put that in perspective, exactly one year ago at this same location, the flow was around 200 cubic feet per second. 200 is a little high, but in a median year, the river would be twice as high.
Storage
When streams are running low and snow is gone, we rely on our reservoirs. Fortunately, this is where we have some good news. Northern Utah's reservoirs are pretty full. Pineview Reservoir, for instance, is sitting at an impressive 98% capacity. Causey is at 99, and the other reservoirs along the Wasatch Back have healthy levels.
Soil Moisture
The fourth "S" is the easiest to overlook, but it's the indicator that most closely aligns with how we experience drought conditions: soil moisture. Looking at the current data, much of our area shows soil moisture levels in the red and yellow zones on monitoring maps. These colors indicate we're at 30% or lower of normal soil moisture levels — a clear sign of drought stress.
The Bottom Line
Storage is the only factor we can directly influence through careful reservoir management. Right now, it's our strong reservoir levels saving us from a bigger crisis. That said, storage only exists because of snow and streams, and soil needs its share of water as well. The only other aspect of the picture we can control is how much water we use.
