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Show Table Shows Present Snow Measures Above Average With the present accumulated snow and water supply, and with March and April ahead, the prospects for a . far better supply of water for irriga-tion irriga-tion purposes for 1932, is brighter than that of 1931, according to Brice McBride, Sevier river water commissioner, commis-sioner, who has just completed measurements meas-urements of the Sevier watersheds. While accumulated precipitation and snow covering, as a study of the fol-lowings fol-lowings table will show, are much higher than for several years, they are still short, of sufficient to refill the ground water enough to expect anywhere near the supply available for the season of 1929, which was 66 per cent for More decree, and 76 per cent for Higgins decree. Early spring snows and rains, which usually extend ex-tend into late April, water conditions still have a chance to greatly im-j prove, but about all that can be definitely defin-itely said at this time is that we should have ah increased supply in 1932, over 1931, rather than a decrease. de-crease. The Otter Creek reservoir, said Commissioner McBride, contains practically prac-tically the same as last year, while the Piute and, Sevier Bridge reservoirs reser-voirs contain only 50 per cent of what they did a year ago on the same date. This condition indicates a continuation con-tinuation of the depletion of the underground un-derground storage in the watersheds. In general, the snow that has fallen - , during the past winter on all parts of the watershed has been badly drifted, drift-ed, and it is this drifting that has caused so much trouble to traffic, rather ra-ther than an excesssive amount of snow. Also, the valley snows contain (Continued on last page) Table Shows Snow Above Last Year (Continued from page 1) considerable more water in proportion than the snow at higher elevations. In Commissioner McBride's com-plla.toin com-plla.toin of the records for a 11-year period, the accumulated precipitation, mean, of five key stations, shows as follows: Inches . Oct. 1, 1921 to Dec. 31, 1921 4.23 Highest, year since Oct. 1, 1920 Cct. 1, 1929 to Dec. 31, 1929 .42 Lowest year since Oct. 1, 1920 Oct. 1, 1930 to Dec. 31, 1930 .89 Oct. 1, 1931 to Dec. 31, 1931 2.97 333 pet. of 1930; 140 pot. of 12-yr. mean Mean 12-year period 2.12 1929-1930 1930-1931 1931-1932 Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 42 .89 2.97 Oct. 1 to Mar. 31 2.31 2.26 Oct. 1 to June 30 3.83 4.28 Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. .. 9.09 6.86 Mean 11-year period, Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 9.77 Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 1931 2.97 Oct. 1, 1930' to April 30, 1931 2.95 Snow on Ground February 1st, Inches: 1931 1932 Sevier Virgin Summit 28 (7 in. water) Junction Mammoth Creek Sevier R. 5 24 (6 in. water) East Fork (Widtsoe) 56 1218 East Fork (Bryce Canyon) v 14 Panguitch Lake ., - 8 36 Bear Valley :L 8 1218 Kimberly 16.3 (water 5.7") 654 (10 meas.) |