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Show Water year finishes in Utah as sixth driest on record j By GARY R. BLOPGETT j If you wonder where the rains went this year, the answer is simple: they never did come. Or when they did, they were in very moderate amounts. In fact, the 1986-87 water year which ended en-ded at midnight last Wednesday turned out to be the sixth driest water year since modern-day modern-day records were first kept 30 years ago. Only 10.71 inches of precipitation was recorded re-corded at Salt Lake International Airport during dur-ing the 12-month period which just ended. And that's just a little less than 70 percent of normal. Compared to the past 10 years, the percentage percen-tage of normal would be even lower less than 60 percent of the decade average of 17.81 inches, in-ches, according to the National Weather Service Ser-vice office in Salt Lake City. William J. Alder, meteorologist for the NWS, said four of the six wettest years on record occurred during the past decade with the 1981-82 season being the wettest, with 25.15 inches of precip. The following water year was second wettest with 23.82 inches. The year of the big floods (1982-83) saw the sixth wettest water year, with the 1984-85 water wa-ter year being the third wettest, dumping 23.40 inches of precip on the Salt Lake Valley. But the 10-year span also saw two of the driest years on record, including 1978-79 which recorded only 8.19 inches. "It's been a crazy 10 years of weather for this area," said Mr. Alder. "The precipitation pattern has been very erratic ranging from just over eight inches to more than 25 inches. Are we back in a dry cycle now? Of course no one knows for certain. But some weather prognosticators are saying yes at least for another year. This winter and spring are expected to be especially dry in the Intermountain Area, if prevailing weather patterns hold true. And the dry spell couldn't have come at a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 1 Water year proves a dry one CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE better time. Unusually dry weather, along with the west desert pumping station, have reduced the level of the Great Salt Lake nearly two feet when it was at an all-time high and threatening to rise even more. During this year's dry spell, only four months exceeding the normal for wetness. July was wetter than average, otherwise it was an extremely dry summer, Mr. Alder noted. December was the second driest December on record with only 0.1 inch of precip compared com-pared to a monthly norm of 1.37 inches. September Sep-tember (last month) had only 0.05 precip measured mea-sured at the airport, tying for fifth driest in history; and October tied for the eighth driest with 0.39 inches. So if you feel like you haven't felt raindrops falling on your head for a while, it's almost a fact and the three-month outlook isn't much better. While lack of precip has greatly helped the lowering of the Great Salt Lake, it has caused j ai teasi two omer serious prooiems. U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dick Pine (no pun intended) said the dry spell has been so bad the past two months that the Wasatch Front canyons and hillsides are facing "a very high fire danger and within a few days may bring on a ban of no smoking or open fires." And it couldn't happen at a worse time just before the opening of Utah's deer season, Mr. Pine noted. He emphasized that the ban on open fires and smoking is "under serious consideration and may be implemented within the next few days unless there is a change in the weather." Also, because of the extremely dry summer there are grim forecasts for next summer's water wa-ter supply. Most of the nearby reservoirs have been heavily drained to accommodate farmers and both culinary and irrigation water users. There's no concern until spring, it was explained, ex-plained, but another dry spell from October to April could seriously hamper the water supply for next summer. "We seem to have either too much or too little water supply," Mr. Alder observed. |
