Image: USDA
With the end of the snow season in 2024 in Utah, SkiUtah is reporting that the state set a new two-year snowfall total.
“The highest 2-year total snowfall in Utah’s history,” SkiUtah said. “Even the three famously snowy seasons from 1981-84 in Utah did not have that much snow over two consecutive seasons.”
The 903 inches of snow that fell at Alta Ski Area in 2022-23 was an all-time record for a Utah ski area, and although 2023-2024 snow season didn’t threaten that record it still produced well above average snow, making the back-to-back snow seasons the highest combined two-year snowfall ever recorded. SkiUtah reports:
Last year (spring 2023), Utah broke its record for average snowpack at its 114 Snotel sites with a mean of 30 [inches] of snow-water-equivalent. This was almost double the typical peak snowpack in the spring. This year, we finished at nearly 19” of mean snow-water equivalent. This was 118% of the median peak snowpack … [as a result] every watershed basin in Utah was well above normal snowpack as of April 1 when the statewide snowpack peaked.
When we combine the 903” from the 2022-23 season with the 628” that fell at Alta Ski Area this winter, we get a 2-year total of 1531 inches. For many prominent ski destinations across the country, that’s more than 5 full seasons worth of snow.