Editor's note: This is a reprint of an article from the Deseret News' NIE Read with a Child archives.
All of us have to eat on a regular basis. We could go to the store each day to get our food, but sometimes that isn't convenient or just doesn't work.
However, if we put some food in a pantry or a refrigerator, we would have enough to last us awhile.
Just like people, all of our crops, lawns and trees need water on a regular basis. If it consistently rained about 1 inch every week, we would live in a beautiful garden, but it doesn't work that way in Utah. We only get an inch or so of rain every MONTH.
In addition, we have wet and dry seasons, which means we can go for long periods of time without much rain falling. Storminess in Utah is not distributed evenly throughout the year. Our greatest need for water is during the warm time of year, which is our growing season, but that is just when we get the least amount of storminess for the whole year!
What we need is a water pantry where we could store extra water.
Did you know that Utah is blessed with a water pantry? The Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges are our pantry. As moist winds meet these mountains, the clouds lift to get over the top. The lifting process causes the air to cool, and the cooling causes increased storminess, so the mountains get more precipitation than the valleys.
Here is what happens in Utah. The majority of our precipitation comes during the cold time of year. Since the mountains in Utah are so high, storminess turns into snow. All during fall, winter and spring, snow accumulates in our "water pantry." Then, just when the weather turns hot and the storms move away, the snow starts melting and running toward the valleys! The snow that has accumulated on the ground in the mountains is called our snowpack.
The most important part of the snowpack is how much water it contains. Water managers need to know how much water is in the mountains so they can figure how much will reach the reservoirs and be available to us. There are over 80 snowpack sites scattered across the mountains of Utah where snow and water measurements are taken. In the old days, workers strapped on snowshoes and hiked for miles to take readings. Today, many of the sites report by radio signals to a central collection agency. When needed, workers can fly to a site in a helicopter and check a measurement or repair equipment.
The greatest amount of water in northern Utah accumulates in the mountains above Ogden where a weather station called Ben Lomond averages 42 inches of water in the snow by mid-April each year. In southern Utah, the greatest accumulation is 26 inches of water in the mountains east of Cedar City. Since most lower valley locations only get 10 to 15 inches of rain during an entire year, the large amount of water in the mountains is the lifeblood of the state.
All the melting snow in the mountains makes for a lot of streams and rivers in the state. On its own, the water would run either into the Great Salt Lake, where it would turn to salt water, or into the Colorado River. In order to efficiently use the precious moisture that comes into Utah, we have built reservoirs and dams to catch and hold that water so we can use it in the summer. Dams also serve to catch any rapidly melting snow that would otherwise cause floods.
Nevada is the driest state in the nation and Utah is the second driest. One reason we are so dry is because we are located east of major mountains along the West Coast — the Cascades and Sierra Nevada ranges. These large mountain ranges squeeze out most of the storminess that comes our way from the Pacific. A second factor is the jet stream. The jet stream is a river of air high above our heads that steers the storms. During fall, winter and spring, the jet stream is over or near northern Utah, so the storms come our way. During summer, however, the jet stream shifts into Canada, which leaves Utah in a hot, dry condition.
Utah's weather patterns are not consistent or evenly distributed from month to month or even from year to year. We tend to have a series of dry years and then a series of wet years. That makes water even harder to manage, so it is critical to know how much water is stored in our mountain snowpack.
You can check out the weekly snowpack readings yourself at: www.ksl.com.