Flooding possible in Northern Utah

File photo of flooding in Cache County.

Warmer temperatures this coming week are good news for those tired of the wet spring, but could be bad news for Utah’s rivers and streams.

The accumulation of snow at low elevations during the month of May is considerable enough, according to National Weather Service Hydrologist Brian McInerney, to produce short duration minor flooding in localized areas as temperatures warm up.

There are still significant amounts of snow in the mountains around Cache Valley. According to a photo shared by the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest on Twitter, there are 42 inches of snow on the ground at 8200 feet in the Tony Grove area.

Current trends suggest a number of rivers have the potential to swell each day for the first two weeks of June.

“Anything like the Logan, Weber, Provo, American Fork, Big and Little Cottonwood, anything off the Uintas,” said McInerney in a weekly video release, “all of these waterways are going to be incredibly dangerous.”

Those enjoying the mountains in the coming weeks need to be aware of high water levels in rivers.

“Keep your kids away, use incredibly prudent judgement when you go out,” stressed McInerney. “The water is so cold that it will take your breath away. It’s moving so fast and so swift that if you fall in, you’ll get swept away quite quickly.”

The cold, wet spring has produced additional good news. Utah is currently drought free, McInerney said.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.