Amid drought, much of Utah saw unusually wet May


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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An unusually wet May across much of Utah may not have dramatically improved the state's water supply situation, but it delayed the start of wildfire season and allowed farmers to conserve irrigation water, experts said.

If July brings its typical monsoon weather to Utah, the recent rainstorms should help push the wildfire season back as late as August, state and federal officials said.

"It really helps us get through the month of June without a huge increase in fire potential," Shelby Law, meteorologist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, told The Salt Lake Tribune.

The downpours allowed farmers to rely on rain instead of irrigation water at a savings for reservoirs, said Brian McInerney, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

The weather service reports this will go down as the rainiest May on record in Salt Lake City, with 17 days of measurable precipitation. Between 5 and 6 inches of rain fell during the month in northern Utah, and precipitation totals were in excess of four times what is normal in some areas of the state.

"I think the main message is that the rain is helping, but not as much as your senses would feel because it has been so wet and so cool during May," McInerney told the Deseret News. "But the reality is that we have had an absence of snow and snowpack, and our water supply remains low."

The heavy rain has done little to increase flows of streams and rivers, he said, and the Bear River has already experienced its peak flows for the runoff season.

The Weber River is running at 300 cubic feet per second at the Oakley measuring station and should be at about 800 cubic feet per second. In 2011, with Utah coming off record snowfall, the river was at 3,000 cubic feet per second, McInerney said.

"It (wet May) is helpful, but it is not resolving our drought situation," said Jeff Budge, manager of the Provo River Water Users Association.

The U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday reported most of the state remains in moderate to severe drought. A western chunk of Utah that includes portions of Box Elder, Tooele and Juab counties remains in extreme drought.

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