Despite Utah's healthy snowpack, no major flooding expected this spring
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Expect dangerous, raging rivers in the coming weeks but no damaging floods.
That’s the forecast of Brian McInerney, a hydrologist in the Salt Lake City area who works for the National Weather Service.
“The question is how high are the peaks going to be? Are we going to damage any infrastructure — bridges, roads, buildings, that type of thing?” McInerney said. “Right now, it doesn’t look like we’re going to have major flooding this year.”
Two areas do have a less than 10% chance of flooding: City Creek and the Provo River, according to the NWS.
The temperatures this week — about 10 degrees above average — will accelerate the snowmelt.
“That’s going to bring off the low-elevation snow, which will alleviate our flood threat,” McInerney said.
Snow at the middle and upper elevations has yet to begin melting, he said.
Big Cottonwood Creek will speed up from 160 cubic feet per second to 280 cubic feet per second by the weekend, McInerney said.
Children and pets should stay away from raging water for the next few months.
“You’ve got about two minutes before you hit isothermal conditions where you’re hypothermic, you can’t move your arms,” McInerney said. “That’s really our biggest threat this year.”
“They’re going to be some of the bigger flows in quite some time,” he added. “They’re going to be really dangerous, and if your child falls into this river or your pet jumps into this, they’re going to be swept downstream really fast.”
Kade Moncur, who leads Salt Lake County Flood Control, also said homes and roads should fare well despite the healthy snowpack, which is 150% to 190% of normal across Utah.
“Really, we don’t feel there’s going to be a lot of property damage this year,” Moncur said. “There could be some erosion along the creeks, and certainly some private residences back up to the creek, so there might be some of that.”
His concern is people leaving firewood, yard waste and construction waste next to waterways.
“That’s where some of the flooding can happen when we don’t have a larger flow, but it plugs up a culvert and starts to cause us problems,” Moncur said. “Any debris that you can keep away from the creeks is really important for us.”
Moncur’s crews clear away debris at grates to keep the water flowing.
One scenario that McInerney said could change the amount of flooding in Utah is a stretch of cold, wet weather delaying the melt several more weeks followed by hot, sunny days. “That’s possible,” he said. “It’s not probable.”