Water year looks good for Bridger Valley

By VVIRGINIA GIORGIS Pioneer Editor vgiorgis@bridgervalleypioneer.com
Posted 6/7/19

Looking to Bridger Valley's summer water

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Water year looks good for Bridger Valley

Posted

BRIDGER VALLEY — This year has been a long, snowy winter followed by a wet spring to bring a lot of moisture to the area.

However, this area hasn’t been inundated with the massive storms hitting Oklahoma and points in that area of the United States. Basically, too much moisture for the area to handle.

As for the Uintas lying south of Bridger Valley, they still look snow-covered and according to the water report by the Bridger Valley Conservancy District, the snow melt in the mountains is beginning to impact both Meeks Cabin and Stateline. It doesn’t appear this will be the massive cycle the Valley endured a few summers ago, but it is still too early to tell.

According to the May 23 Rocky Mountain Area (RMA) Climate Outlook/National Geographic, the current El Nino will create a “sea-surface pattern that correlates historically with a below average fire season across the entire RMA for June through August in terms of large fire acres burned, with only one year since 1992 that wasn’t below average.

The Uintas, south of Bridger Valley, were recently pointed out by Channel 4/SLC weather as still an area with a high level of moisture continuing to fall.

In a long range forecast for the Valley area, ‘Old Farmers Almanac’ has predicted the

last seven days of June as sunny, then hot with slightly above average temperatures

The Almanac predicted July would start out will cooler weather and moisture, but by the middle of July, the hot weather comes back.

Some of the highlights of the most recent reports by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Riverton are Wyoming’s April precipitation was 115 to 120 percent of average. The current water year precipitation was averaging 110 to 115 percent of normal across Wyoming. It was also projected the snowmelt stream flow volumes would be near normal to slightly above normal in several major basins in Wyoming.

When looking to the reservoirs in the Uintas, which feed the Valley, the outlook appears good at this point.

According to its report, the figures for the ‘Precipitation Percent of Average’ as of June 4 (year to date) list the Upper Green at 104 percent, Lower Green at 113 percent and the Upper Bear River at 114 percent. The only basin showing way below average was the Cheyenne River Basin at 62 percent. Most of the state is in the range from 92 percent to 114 percent.