This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

It seems Utah's weather can't decide whether or not it wants to play the drought card again this summer.

After early projections called for big-time snow, the later part of the winter season failed to deliver. Unremarkable spring weather made it appear Utah might squeak by with just enough snowpack — but then an unseasonable warm spell dropped some Utah mountain ranges to 10 percent of normal, said Randy Julander, Utah Snow Survey supervisor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Enter April showers, which this year dropped as much as a half a foot of water in some parts of Utah, and now the U.S. Drought Monitor says the drought may be over, except in the northernmost reaches of the West Desert.

Julander doesn't expect to see any more large storms this season— but then again, he said, he and other forecasters don't know what to expect anymore.

"Who knows where it's going," he said. "But on the bright side, we really like it right now."

According to the April 2016 Utah Climate and Water Report from the NRCS, the Salt Lake and Utah valleys remain among the driest basins in the state, with year-to-date precipitation sitting at 88 percent of normal. Much of the rest of the state is within normal ranges, and the eastern basins are still slightly above normal.

Streamflows are expected to return to their normal levels this summer as well, Julander said, and all but the largest reservoirs are expected to fill.

The national Climate Prediction Center expects normal or below-average temperatures this month, giving way to above-average warmth in June an July. Precipitation is expected to continue at an above-average rate through July.

Julander said he thought it was possible that Utah could see a repeat of the exceptionally wet weather the state saw last May, but who knows?

"Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get," he said. "We've just had some really, really strange stuff coming our way. And that just happens."

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