The up and down water year ended on a down note Sept. 30 and Utah basically came out “pretty close to normal,” according to the monthly report from the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Jordan Clayton.
September was definitely a down month, especially after a wet August, with the state receiving a scant 0.3 inches of rain in the valleys, “well below normal,” and a not-much-better 0.7 inches in the mountains, 42% of normal.
Clayton in his report said soil moisture statewide was at 36% of saturation, which was 3% lower that last year at this time. While southeastern Utah has “well-above-normal soil moisture, the moisture in the St. George area, the Uinta Basin and western Utah are alarmingly low.”
The mountains of Utah were “very dry” across the state in June and July; August saw “significant monsoonal moisture and was well above normal — and then September came with very little rain.
“Much like in Utah’s valley locations, all of this back and forth — combined with an above-average snowpack season — resulted in an end of water year value for mountain precipitation that was essentially 100% of normal,” Clayton wrote.
Statewide soil moisture in Utah’s mountains ended the water year at 30% of saturation, which was 13% lower than at this time last year, he said. “We will need to monitor our soil moisture levels moving forward and hope that conditions improve somewhat before the winter snowpack season to avoid overly dry soils and their adverse impact on runoff quantity during snowmelt,” he said.
(Utah Division of Natural Resources) Overall the statewide reservoir storage has remained high.
Overall the statewide reservoir storage has remained high. As of Oct. 1, the state was at 72% of capacity, which was only 1% lower than last year’s value, Clayton wrote. While Water Availability Indices (WAIs) for Utah basins are in the top 25th percentile for three of Utah’s 18 major basins, six basins have WAIs below the 50th percentile, reflecting below normal water availability conditions.
“Welcome to the 2025 water year,” wrote Clayton. “Let’s hope we are fortunate enough to receive a third consecutive above normal snowpack. Time will tell.”
This story was first published by The Times-Independent.
