May 9, 2023
Spanish Fork, UT — There are still 24 inches of water in the high-elevation snowpack. When the snow melts, the runoff will be heading into the Spanish Fork River in the next few weeks. But what does that actually mean?
High and fast flows are in the 10-day forecast.
Last week's cool temperatures slowed the melt and the river down. The temperatures in today's 10-day forecast will likely bring the river back to where it was last week.
High-level vs. low-level snowpack
There are two measurements that make up our snowpack: the high level and the low level.
High-level snow is what is on the mountains 9,000 feet and above. Low-level snow is below 8,500 feet. The greatest flood risk happens when both the high and low-level snowpack melts at the same time.
The current low-level snowpack measurement shows less than 7 inches of snow water remaining. This is significantly less than the 28 inches at this elevation that accumulated over the winter.
In contrast, there are still 24 inches of snow water above 9,000 feet that need to come down.
Actions to take
Please continue to be safe by staying out of the river. Keep children and pets away from the river, and avoid river recreation.
Please leave sandbag walls in place. City officials expect next week's water to reach or slightly exceed the levels we had last week.
We will be doing a video update on Friday, May 12 - if you have any questions you’d like us to address, please text us at 801-804-4500.