This winter in Utah, the grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side, but the snow is deeper.
The northern and southern halves of the state have been experiencing two different winters. The north, including in the Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges and their skiers and snowboarders, can delight in a snowpack that’s slightly above average — thanks in large part to last week’s storm that dropped more than to six feet of snow in the Cottonwood Canyons.
The southern part of the state? Even for a desert climate, it’s dry.
The Wasatch Mountains are at 110% of average snowpack, according to Glen Merrill, a hydrologist based out of the National Weather Service office in Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, the Pine Valley Mountains, which are situated near Utah’s southwest border and feed the Santa Clara River and the St. George area, are at 12% of average.
“That’s a record low,” Merrill said. " And to really highlight this, elevations below 9,000 feet have no snow.”
Southwest Washington County and portions of Iron County are in an extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That is one step above the worst possible drought status. A little more than three-fourths of the state is in drought, according to the monitor. The rest is “abnormally dry.”
It started to feel dry in northern Utah early last week, as brown replaced white on the sides of Mount Olympus rising above the Salt Lake Valley, and the same happened at Round Valley in Park City. Jim Steenburgh, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah, posted on his Bluesky account on Feb. 17 that the 9.2 inches of snow Salt Lake City had received since October was the second lowest in history. The lowest, 6.8 inches, came during the 2014-15 season. That season went on to become the least snowiest in Utah history.
With 9.2" so far, this season has produced the 2nd lowest amount of snowfall on record through Feb 17 in the Salt Lake City area per records from the National Weather Service (Record 2014/15 6.8").
— Jim Steenburgh (@professorpowder.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 4:44 PM
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But last week, a major storm rode to the rescue. It started snowing Feb. 20 and continued for the better part of four days. That added to the bounty from the weekend of Feb. 13-15. In all, about 50 inches dropped in the northern half of the state, with a snow-water equivalent of about five inches, according to a report from OpenSnow forecaster Evan Thayer.
“The storm cycle since February 13th sure has been good to us!” Thayer wrote in his report. “We saw up to 75 [inches] of new snow and quite a bit of water content in the snow to help bolster our snowpack.”
Southern Utah also got some moisture from that storm cycle. Merrill estimated most mountains saw a couple inches of snow. But it has already melted, he said, with most of that moisture going into the soil and little, if any, making it into the streams and rivers.
Southern Utah needs more storms like that to catch up, Merrill said. A lot more.
“We’re essentially saying that we’re nine storms behind,” he said, “as we enter into March.”
To come to that determination, Merrill looked at the highest and typically snowiest SNOTEL site in the southern mountains — one located near the Brian Head Resort ski area, which has the highest base elevation in the state at 9,600 feet. It has received the snow equivalent of 7.5 inches of water. That’s the second lowest on record for that site and nine inches less than normal. And Merrill estimates a decent winter storm carries about an inch of water on average.
Trying to look at the bright side, Merrill noted that municipalities in southern Utah still have plenty of water stored in reservoirs as a result of the past two winters — one of which was the snowiest on record.
(Brian Head Resort) | A Snotel site near Brian Head Resort, pictured here, near Parowan is the highest and snowiest in southern Utah. The snow it has received this winter is equal to 7.8 inches of water. It gets more than twice as much on average.
In addition, Thayer reported he expects the southern part of the state could get some moisture Sunday, with mountains across the state potentially seeing snow Monday or Tuesday. More storms, he noted, could be on the horizon for the following weekend.
That could be good news for skiers and city managers statewide. But like the longevity of its snow, the relief in the south is expected to be fleeting.
“The pattern does look more favorable,” Merrill said. “But we’re getting late in the season, especially for the southern Utah mountains.”
