So in Utah weather… it’s spring now? Sort of — yes

SALT LAKE CITY — March 1 marks the first day of “meteorological spring” — which is really just a tidy way for meteorologists to keep a record of Utah weather. There’s no correlation to the first real day of spring.

But it doesn’t necessarily reflect all the time what we’re currently seeing in our current weather.

KSL Chief Meteorologist Kevin Eubank says the Utah weather it could feel like spring for a couple of days, but the super cold, below-average temperatures move in soon. but then we’ll see some super cold, below-average temps.

“When you see a strong cold front coming, generally you get warm ahead of that,” says Eubank. “We call it the warm before the storm — that often occurs. That’s what creates these sharp changes.” 

Eubank says this warm burst won’t hurt, but there’s one thing our weather pattern really needs.

“It’s been so, so dry,” said Eubank. “Salt Lake City has had one of the driest January and driest Februarys in history. When you combine those together, it’s the been the driest start to the calendar year in Salt Lake history. We need the precipitation. We need rain and we need snow.”

A recent study showed just how bad the drought is, saying the planet may be seeing its driest years in quite some time.

The snow in the mountains, coupled with spring runoff, is the most powerful boost to the needed water supply here in Utah.

“We need that water to get into the reservoirs in a way that we can manage it, store it,” he said.

Eubank says the best deal we can strike, is to get a lot of good mountain snow, then a good rotation of warming up and cooling off. 

This comes as Utah lawmakers are using their final days in the 2022 legislative session to discuss bills to help with drought issues. Some lawmakers even went to check on the levels of the Great Salt Lake in National Guard Blackhawks. And the levels were already pretty alarming.

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