| OCR Text |
Show Cold spell prevailed January weather brought good news and bad news to residents of Utah Valley. The good news: precipitation was only 1.05 inches, which is 69 percent of the normal of 1.51 inches, reported Dr. Dale Stevens, professor of geography and weather specialist at BYU. The bad news: cold, record cold. "This was the coldest January since 1955," Stevens said. "The average temperature for the month was 19.9 degrees F. Our average high was 27.6 degrees while the average low was 12.2 degrees. This is much lower than our normal highs for the month at 40 degrees and colder than our n ormal lows of 19.3 degrees." Stevens said a total of 14 inches of snow fell during January, mostly in light amounts. Two or three times, however, about three inches fell as weak storms passed over the area. The maximum snow depth on the ground for January was 15 inches, while the average was 9 inches. Temperatures rose above freezing on Jan. 1 to 34 degrees to 33 degrees on the 10th, 35 on the 12th, and a "heat wave" from the 23rd to the 29th when the temperatures were above freezing, hitting a high of 40 degrees on the 25th, Stevens noted. The professor said if February has a normal precipitation of 1.43 inches, that will help spring -summer runoff. But the area still faces March and April -- the time when a spring wet cycle begins. Snowpacks in the mountains above Utah Valley are about 131 percent of normal. "Based on what snow we have now and if conditions continue at the current pace, we could still have some severe flooding and landslide problems," the professor said. |
