With all that snow, Weber County officials are on alert for potential flooding
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- A snow-covered neighborhood in Ogden, photographed Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023.
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- A snow-covered street in Ogden, photographed Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023.
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- A snow-filled tree in Ogden, photographed Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. Officials are on guard for the potential for flooding once temperatures start rising given the heavier-than-normal snowfall this year.
OGDEN — All that snow is great news in helping break the ongoing drought impacting the state, or at least in countering it.
Aside from the snowstorm that started hitting much of the state on Tuesday, Utah has experienced heavier-than-normal snowfall so far this winter.
But there’s a flip side — the precipitation raises the specter of flooding once temperatures rise and the snowpack starts melting. That has officials closely watching things, worried about overflowing river banks and out-of-control snowmelt. “It’s a huge unknown as to when and if something will happen,” said Gary Myers, the Weber County engineer.
The potential is a big concern, though, and county crews have already started clearing the county’s culverts and drainage systems of debris and excess vegetation to guard against water backups and flooding once melting occurs. Drones fitted with cameras are being employed to monitor drainage areas in hard-to-reach areas of the Ogden Valley and elsewhere to aid in the efforts.
What’s more, the county’s emergency management officials and others who help manage county infrastructure, like Joe Hadley, director of the Weber County Road Department, have started meeting in a bid to stay on top of the situation.
“I truly believe that it all depends on Mother Nature, on how warm it gets this spring. If the temperature gradually rises, we should be OK,” Hadley said. “However, if it rises too quickly, we are concerned there will be a chance of flooding.”
Gradual temperature rises and declines allow for gradual melting of snowpack, guarding against flooding, Myer explained. But if temperatures jump up and stay put, the resulting quick melt off can overwhelm drainage systems.
Western Weber County experienced heavy flooding along the Weber River in 2011, prompting development of the Little Weber River channel cutoff in the area to handle overflow to guard against a repeat. That provides a buffer of protection.
However, Wade Mathews, public information officer for the Utah Division of Emergency Management, warned against thinking the risk of flooding can be eliminated altogether.
“There’s always a flood risk, that’s our messaging,” he said, and not only for those who live in flood plains. “It can flood anywhere.”
Since 1983, he went on, 12 of the 15 natural disaster declarations in Utah have been for flooding.
Mathews said state officials have reached out to local emergency management officials and are encouraging them to make sure drainage systems in their jurisdictions are clear, as is occurring in Weber County. Like Myers, though, he said it’s hard to predict if flooding will definitively occur and, if it happens, where the problem spots will be. “There’s no way for us to know when that could start,” he said.
The tipoff to the possibility of flooding is the snowpack accumulating in the mountains along the Wasatch Front and elsewhere. The snow-water equivalent this season across the Weber River basin and beyond is well above 30-year averages, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service data.
On the bright side — kind of — the fact that the state’s reservoirs have dipped well below their average levels because of the drought is a potential hedge against flooding, Myers said. They can store more snowmelt without overflowing their banks when the time comes.
Nonetheless, officials aren’t resting easy.
Mathews advises those thinking about getting flood insurance to act now as standard insurance for homeowners doesn’t cover flooding. More information is available at floodsmart.gov.
Once melting starts, Mathews also advises caution around rapid flowing water in rivers and roadways, among other things. Eighteen inches of fast-moving water in a flooded street, he said, is enough to carry a car away. “Turn around, don’t drown, go to higher ground,” he said.
More information on the flood threat is available at floodhazards.utah.gov.