Utah and its water year

Soil moisture levels across Utah are extremely low, a factor that could bring foreboding when it comes to the efficiency of the spring runoff and what moisture is sucked up by the ground.
Still, the state’s mountains regions have reason to celebrate, according to a new report by the Natural Resources Conservation Service which tracks the water supply outlook during the snow accumulation season.
Jordan Clayton, supervisor of the agency’s Utah Snow Survey, said the 2025 water year started off pretty well even for Utah’s valley locations.
“Precipitation was 125% of normal for the month of October, driven up by impressive totals in the Uinta Basin and in southeastern Utah,” he noted.
The moisture boosted soil saturation levels “dramatically” in the Uinta Basin.
Utah’s mountains did receive more snow than valley locations .
“Some of that precipitation was snow, and while we’re always excited for the snowpack season (the mountains look lovely!) we opted to not include snowpack percent of normal values in this report since the normals for this time of year are so minimal,” Clayton said, adding they distort the percentages and therefore are not normal.
Clayton warned how fickle Utah’s snow behaves.
“We also want to caution Utahns to remember that last winter’s snowpack started slow but ended above normal and many other recent years have started strong but then flatlined in January with the presence of blocking atmospheric high pressure systems,” he wrote. “Long story short: we welcome the snow but will wait to get too excited about it until much later in the season.”
Utah’s statewide reservoir storage is at 71% of capacity, which is 3% lower than last year’s Nov. 1 — but that leftover capacity will make room for the coming snowpack (fingers crossed) and potentially alleviate any flooding worries.
As far as what the agency terms “Water Availability Indices,” — which includes basin reservoir conditions and observed streamflow, there are signs of encouragement in that those measures are in the top 20th percentile for three of Utah’s 18 basins — Ogden, Price and Joe’s Valley.
They are well below normal for Blacks Fork Smiths Fork and the Lower Sevier and Virgin River watersheds.
In southeastern Utah, which has been hit hard by drought, there was an average of 1.5 inches that fell regionwide. While that may not sound like much, Clayton said that October precipitation puts them at 250% of the median.
Conversely, the St. George region is struggling early into the season, with just 80% of the median falling in October.
But as Clayton stressed, there are many, many months left to go for snowpack to fall and many many months to be concerned, or alternately delighted.
While it is chilly out there, it looks like another opportunity for a storm arrives as early as Wednesday.