Utah
‘We still have a long way to go’: Why Gov. Cox wants Utahns to keep praying for snow
Ken Perko skis at Liberty Park on Thursday. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says the current snowstorms are a very good begin, however the subsequent few months will play a important position within the state water provide. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information)
Estimated learn time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Snow is clearly on Gov. Spencer Cox’s thoughts this week, as he is kicked off two of his newer media appearances by expressing his appreciation for the freshly fallen snow.
The Nationwide Climate Service experiences that Alta obtained at the least one other 4 inches in a single day, tacking onto the 4 ft of snow that it has already obtained this week. Many mountain places have additionally obtained at the least 2 ft of snow since Sunday, particularly within the Wasatch Mountains.
“Clearly, this has been superb for our snowpack,” Cox stated, firstly of his month-to-month PBS information convention Thursday.
The statewide snowpack at present comprises 5.8 inches of water collected for the reason that 2023 water yr began on Oct. 1, in line with Pure Assets Conservation Service information accessed Thursday morning. That determine is about 150% of regular for the midway level in December. There’s variation amongst Utah’s 16 snowpack basins however each basin is faring effectively, bouncing between 118% and 191% of regular.
Total, precipitation ranges within the mountains are additionally above regular for this level within the yr. All of those figures matter as a result of Utah’s snowpack assortment and subsequent spring runoff account for about 95% of the state’s water provide. The water within the snowpack helps refill the state’s reservoirs, which have been depleted by drought. The complete system is at present listed at 43% full, per Utah Division of Water Assets information.
That stated, it is solely a robust begin. Utah’s snowpack is listed at 37% of the median peak, which suggests the statewide determine wants to almost triple the gathering for the reason that begin of October to achieve the conventional of the previous few many years.
This is the reason Cox is hopeful that the stormy tendencies will proceed because the season progresses.
The excellent news is Utah is effectively forward of schedule. There are 110 days left earlier than peak season in early April. The dangerous information is that Utah’s winters usually characteristic ebbs and flows, so for each pocket of frequent storm exercise — such because the previous two weeks — there are pockets the place nothing occurs. These lulls can stall snow assortment, or worse, trigger untimely soften.
“Pretty much as good as it has been, in the event you take a look at the charts, we’re actually within the early phases of the snowpack yr,” Cox stated. “Essentially the most important months are literally February, March and April, when that snowpack actually climbs. So whereas we’re actually excited and grateful, we nonetheless have an extended approach to go to have sufficient snowpack to fill our reservoirs and pull us out of this drought.”
It isn’t simply this season, both. Due to the severity of Utah’s present drought — combined in with the two-decadeslong “megadrought” — specialists have repeatedly cautioned that it’s going to take many good snowpack seasons to assist all reservoirs get better from the consequences of drought.
As they are saying, it usually takes as a few years to go away a drought because it takes to enter it.
That is why the governor reiterated most of the similar messages since taking workplace, calling on Utahns to be aware of how they devour water.
“I urge you to preserve water and to proceed to hope for snow and rain,” he stated. “We want all the assistance we will get.”
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Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
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Utah
Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters
WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah National Guard has been serving the state since 1894 with roots dating back to the Minutemen of the 17th-century American colonies.
This weekend, they received quite the boost in the form of the Army’s most advanced attack helicopter.
“These aircraft are extremely fast compared to our other aircraft,” said Col. Patrick.
On Saturday, the Utah National Guard took their new Apache helicopters for a spin.
“The flight went better than we could have hoped for. A little weather on the east coast, but after that, it wasn’t bad at all,” Patrick said.
The first four of 24 Apaches arrived early Saturday morning after they went under full inspection.
“They’ve got software on there that it’s like playing a video game. You just fly the video game and the airplane… is fast and smooth, which is the good thing, and so it’ll just hold the altitude and airspeed and just keep on trucking along. It’s pretty good,” Patrick said.
The first Apache helicopters arrived in Utah back in 1992.
“It just continues the legacy of the air pirates and what we bring to not only Utah, but really to the global fight and security, really,” Patrick added.
The colonel calls it a major step forward.
“What a great day for Utah as we advance into the next couple decades of combat operations and what we can provide to, you know, the global security.”
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