Utah may be seeing a snap of cold, wintry weather this week, but it’s not enough to make up for the lowest snowpack on record.
“Right now, things are quite dire,” said Basil Newmerzhycky, fire weather program manager for BLM Predictive Services. “We’re looking at our lowest snowpack in modern history.”
The implications for a low snowpack are far-reaching. Most people think of water shortages, reservoir capacity, and drought conditions, but Newmerzhycky warns that a low snowpack can also lead to a more severe wildfire season.
“We’ve had some very bad fire seasons in the past, 2018 and 2012, with very low snowpacks,” he said. “So far, our snowpack and our drought conditions leading up to here are similar, if not worse, than some of those very busy years.” Newmerzhycky is most worried about Utah’s middle and higher elevations.
