Clayton said SNOTEL is what sets NRCS apart from other weather networks. SNOTEL is an automated system of snowpack and related climate sensors that are located only in the mountains. The NRCS doesn’t have a crystal ball but it does have SNOTEL. The question is whether the storms will keep coming. And that's great news because we've got about three and a half months left in our typical snowpack season.” “So what that means is we're about a third of the way to what we would typically receive in a normal snowpack year. “The current snow water equivalent in the Weber is about 35% of the annual peak,” Clayton said. A watershed is a land area that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams and rivers, and eventually outflow points like reservoirs.Īccording to Jordan Clayton, a snow survey data collection officer with NRCS, the Weber watershed is about 142% of normal and Provo is 166% of normal. Park City is right on the divide between the Provo watershed and the Weber watershed.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service reports how much water is actually in Utah’s snowpack.Īccording to NRCS’s most recent report, all but four of Utah’s 16 major watersheds had above normal mountain precipitation last month.
Ski Utah defines a “powder day” as a 24 hour period that gets over 12 inches of snow - Utah had 44 powder days, sailing above the yearly average of 19.About 95% of Utah’s water for agriculture, municipal uses and drinking water comes from snow. In addition, Brighton, Snowbasin, Park City, Deer Valley and Solitude all experienced their longest seasons ever. 4, earlier than any other resort, and closed on May 7 in what was its longest season ever and the most snow it had in 10 years. Alta had so much snow it averaged 5.1 inches of each day. Ski Utah says the ski industry contributed to $256.8 million in state and local tax revenue. Those skiers spent $2.54 billion, an 8% increase from last year’s $2.35 billion. Data is still preliminary, but Ski Utah expects to report 7.1 million skier visits during the season, shattering the previous record set in 5.8 million during the 2021-2022 season. Utah’s statewide snow water equivalent - essentially the moisture in the snowpack - peaked at 30 inches in early April, surpassing the decadeslong record of 26 inches. At 613 inches, Snowbasin had more snow than its last two seasons combined. Snowbird had 838 inches, shattering its previous record of 783 set in 2011, Brighton had 881, Solitude had 816, Park City Mountain Resort had 636 and Deer Valley had 606. But it wasn’t the only resort that had its record broken - 12 of the state’s 15 ski areas had more snow than ever. At 903 inches, Alta recorded more snow than any other resort. UDOT recorded 550 avalanches in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons this year - 98 of them crossed the road, and 62 of those were big enough to bury a vehicle. “There is still some skiing to be had in Utah as we head into summer, and we are looking forward to enjoying warm weather activities as resorts start to open for summer operations soon.”įrom a banner financial year for the industry, to the longest season ever for some resorts, here are some statistics that show just how unprecedented this winter was. “The snow just didn’t stop falling until May,” said Nathan Rafferty, Ski Utah president, in a statement. More skiers than ever flocked to Utah’s ski resorts - some are still skiing. Mountain homes buckled under the weight of snow, while ski resort employees were trapped for days at a time. Skiers waited for hours at the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon as the Utah Department of Transportation triggered avalanches like the mountains had never seen before. 
But during the record-breaking 2022-2023 ski season, Alta recorded enough cumulative snow to dwarf Utah’s iconic red rock landmark. Of course, that’s not really how snowpack works - there was never 903 inches, which is what Alta Ski Resort recorded this winter, piled up in the Wasatch Mountains at one time. If you were to compare Utah’s Delicate Arch with the amount of snow that fell at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, it would be buried.
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