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Freezing Temperatures, Flooding And Avalanche Warning All Combine In Northern Utah

npr.org

Right now Northern Utah has the best snow pack it’s had in five years. The storm last week left behind large piles of snow . And now the warmer temperatures and rain could create flooding.

 

That’s partly because there’s just a lot of snow on the ground and so when it rains, the snow is melting and there’s a lot of water. But last week there was also sub-zero temperatures. So the ground is frozen, so that means the water can’t soak into the ground and has nowhere to go.

Martin Schroeder, with the Utah Climate Center, said water can go where you don’t want it to.

“Basements, places in flooding prone areas that have experienced flooding before. Streams will rise. Along with those rising streams there’s also, an occasional breaking of ice dams because we’ve had such cold temperatures up in the mountains in the last few days," Schroeder said. "So anywhere near river ways and streams is going to be very hazardous area and you want to avoid being near those areas.”

Over the weekend Logan City officials held open hours for people to come and take sandbags if they needed them. The Cache County Sheriff's Office is reminding people that the warning is there to keep people aware and prepared, not to make them panic. The Cache County Sheriff's office also has empty sandbags available.

The warmer temperatures also have experts concerned about avalanches in the northern Utah mountains. Natural and human triggered slides will be certain on many steep slopes where the danger is expected to reach high or extreme, according to the Utah Avalanche Center.