Utah
Utah’s meteorological winter ends on a stormy note. Will it continue this spring?
SALT LAKE CITY — Had it not been for the past week, it would have been difficult to believe there was a winter in Utah this year.
Nearly one-third of the statewide snowpack collection has come since Feb. 11, and many communities in the state experienced their first real winter storm of the year on Wednesday. However, Utah’s snowpack remains at just 65% of the median average for this point in the year and 46% of the median peak over the past 30 years.
Will the stormy trend continue into meteorological spring to improve these totals?
There’s some good and bad news, according to a three-month outlook that the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center released on Thursday.
The agency offers some hope that stormy conditions will continue, especially in Utah’s northern half next month, but, overall, it says that the odds lean slightly toward drier-than-normal conditions developing across Utah and most of the West throughout March, April and May, combined.
Even with this week’s surge, the Natural Resources Conservation Service projects there’s a 30% probability that Utah will set a record-low snowpack this year. That’s compared to a 10% chance there will be enough storms to have a normal season.
The new outlook isn’t ideal, but it might not be too bad, said Glen Merrill, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, as he explained expected patterns earlier this month.
“It’s definitely leaning far away from that 10% of getting back to normal … but it also doesn’t look like the worst-case scenario,” he said.
A potentially record-breaking winter
Utah’s lousy snowpack is primarily tied to temperature. The state’s average temperature in December and January — the first two months of meteorological winter — was the warmest in at least 131 years by over 2 full degrees from the previous record set in 1981, per federal climate data.
Several National Weather Service sites report average temperatures over 5 degrees above normal through the first three weeks of February, potentially securing that this winter will be the warmest on record.
It’s been fairly dry, but not to the same extent. The largest issue is that — aside from the past week — mostly mild storms had produced more high-elevation rain, factoring into why Utah’s snowpack collection dipped into the lowest levels since at least the 1980s until this week.
Snowpack accounts for about 95% of the state’s water supply.
What’s in store for this spring?
Long-range outlooks indicate that storms are more likely to continue in Utah’s northern half toward the end of February and the start of March. The region is also listed as having “equal chances” of wetter, drier or closer to normal precipitation for the rest of March, per the Climate Prediction Center.
The agency lists the rest of the state as having a 33% to 50% odds of below-average precipitation next month, with southern Utah having the strongest odds.
That trend is expected to expand throughout the rest of spring. Almost all of Utah is listed as having 33% to 50% odds of below-average precipitation throughout the season, with even stronger odds in parts of its southeast corner.
Above-normal temperatures are also projected to continue in Utah this spring, which could lead to warmer storms or an earlier spring snowmelt.
It’s not all bleak, though. Long-range outlooks have seemingly indicated that many spring storms may enter the Pacific Northwest and potentially stay north of Utah, Merrill explained. The Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies have equal precipitation odds for the rest of spring.
If it becomes an active pattern in the Pacific Northwest, there’s hope some storms could dip down into Utah, depending on each storm’s trajectory. It’s possibly why many parts of northern Utah still have a 28% to 32% chance of above-normal precipitation this spring.
“Where that delineation actually lines up, we’ll see. But that’s the trend, and that’s really the only thing we can hang our hats on when you look that far out in time,” Merrill said, adding that this outlook could help Utah avoid its lowest snowpack peak on record.
The lowest statewide snowpack in the modern era remains 10.2 inches of snow water equivalent set in 2015. Utah’s snowpack, as of Friday, is 2.8 inches below that mark, meaning that another storm as productive as this week’s pattern could push this year’s total close to or over that.
Utah water managers are still holding out hope for more storms, which are also needed to get back to the annual median average of 16 inches. They’re also preparing in case that doesn’t happen.
Utah Division of Water Resources officials are urging residents to find ways to conserve water in case there isn’t a great spring runoff this year, or in future years. Nearly 95% of the state also remains in moderate, severe or extreme drought, too.
“We appreciate the good storm. Now we need several more,” said Joel Williams, the division’s director, in a statement on Thursday. “We’ll need consistent snowstorms to make up for the snow deficiency we have been experiencing this winter.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
State Sen. Todd Weiler previously shared a six-post thread about opponents of the Box Elder data center allegedly being paid by China.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, says a few words during a ceremonial bill signing to highlight landmark legislation that establishes Utah as a national leader in protecting kids online, in the Gold Room at the Capitol, on Friday, April 4, 2025.
Three firefighters were killed Saturday while battling two wildfires near the Colorado-Utah border, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service announced.
Emily Barker, 38, was from Michigan; Nick Hutcherson, 27, was from Arizona; and Sydney Watson, 26, was from Alabama.
Loved ones and friends started sharing tributes on social media, and FOX 13 News spoke to the loved ones of Emily Barker.
It all started when Sarah Brubeck was looking for a roommate in Colorado.
“Emily answered a random Craigslist ad,” Brubeck said. “We didn’t even know we had so much in common, so we had multiple hockey bags in our garage and multiple snowboards.”
Little did Brubeck know, she was getting a lot more than just a roommate.
“Grew to be more sisters than friends,” she said.
3 firefighters killed in wildfires
Just a couple of states over, Barker had touched the life of Kayla Lindsey.
“I met her when I was doing my interagency fire season with USFS and BLM Idaho,” she said. “You cannot see Emily and not want to talk to her.”
However, both friends’ worlds came crashing down when they heard the news that three firefighters did not make it while responding to the Knowles Fire along the Colorado-Utah border.
“One of our teammates was like, ‘Hey, Emily, let us know you’re safe,’ and she didn’t respond,” Brubeck said. “I just assumed she was out of service, and she would respond when she could, but she couldn’t.”
“I saw it first on Facebook,” Lindsey said. “I just kept reading it over and over, like, ‘That’s not the Emily Barker, I know that’s not my Emily.’”
Barker had died during a burn-over incident, something that hits close to home for Lindsey.
“I remember my first state fire, we pulled our shelters, and that’s never a good feeling. You never want to have to hear the words, ‘Get to your safety zone,’” she said. “I couldn’t imagine as strong as Emily was, how scared she must have felt when that happened, because that’s a terrible way to go.”
“She was more than life itself,” Lindsey added through tears. “She took so much interest in every person she met. She loved her job.”
While the world is getting to know Barker as a hero, her friends said it’s who she’s been all along.
“Showing up to house sit for free while we’re on our honeymoon or offering to carry someone’s hockey bag — she just gave of herself constantly,” Brubeck said.
“Didn’t matter how much she didn’t have in her cup, she always tried to fill everyone else’s,” Lindsey added. “I just wish we had more Emilys in the fire service.”
A wildland firefighter who knew the victims in Utah released the following statement:
“It’s times like these we’re reminded how truly dangerous our jobs are. Fire is the only natural disaster we ask men and women to stand in front of and stop. While we are often successful, sometimes the power of fire overtakes us, despite our best efforts and safest decision making. As we see so much criticism online about how we do our jobs, please remember our ultimate goal is to get every firefighter home safely. Saturday, we failed. The loss of Emily, Nick, and Sydney is burned in our souls. Our agencies and firefighters are hurting. We appreciate the public support now. And we hope that continues long after this has been forgotten for most of you. Because, for us, it is never forgotten. Every decision“It’s times like these we’re reminded how truly dangerous our jobs are. Fire is the only natural disaster we ask men and women to stand in front of and stop. While we are often successful, sometimes the power of fire overtakes us, despite our best efforts and safest decision making. As we see so much criticism online about how we do our jobs, please remember our ultimate goal is to get every firefighter home safely. Saturday, we failed. The loss of Emily, Nick, and Sydney is burned in our souls. Our agencies and firefighters are hurting. We appreciate the public support now. And we hope that continues long after this has been forgotten for most of you. Because, for us, it is never forgotten. Every decision, every pause in action, is because of a lost firefighter. To our fallen comrades… we’ll take it from here.”
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A part-time wildland firefighter is asking Utah leaders for more job protections after he said he was told he would lose his full-time job for accepting a call to respond to the Iron and Cherry fires.
Israel Justice has worked as a part-time wildland firefighter for 22 years. For the past seven years, he has also worked full time for an Ogden-based mechanical company.
Justice said his employer had previously accommodated the emergency nature of wildfire deployments, but that recently changed.
“This job requires, you know, last-minute, kind-of show-up-and-go,” Justice said. “They call you, and you have to leave immediately and respond to these incidents.”
MORE | Wildfire
Justice is currently assigned to the fire line. He said he does not know whether he will have a job to return to when his assignment ends.
“They were recently bought out by a larger corporation, and they’re not willing to work under the same terms we had before, where I would be free to leave and come back,” Justice said.
2News reached out to the company to ask about its unpaid leave policy, what has changed and whether Justice will have a job to return to. The company did not respond.
Justice said the uncertainty has forced him to choose between job security and answering a critical call for help.
“I don’t believe it’s asking much that these companies make a small sacrifice so we can come out here and serve,” he said.
Justice said he wants wildland firefighters to receive employment protections similar to those provided to National Guard members and certain volunteers.
“We’re out here doing the same job, putting our lives on the line to help others,” Justice said. “We’re out here serving and doing our part for the country, and all I ask is that we get a little protection so that when we get back home, we know we’ll still have a job and can continue to care for our families.”
Justice said the pressure of fighting a wildfire while not knowing whether he will be able to support his family when he returns makes an already dangerous job even more difficult.
He has written to Gov. Spencer Cox and Rep. Blake Moore asking for stronger employment protections for wildland firefighters and informing them of his situation. He said he has not heard back.
Rep. Moore provided the following statement:
“Our office hasn’t heard from this constituent about his situation, but we would encourage employers where they can to allow their employees to go fight the fires. I’m grateful to the many firefighters and first responders working to keep our communities safe, and I’m praying for their safety during this time.”
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