Many folks are wondering what the summer is going to look like as far as watering lawns and gardens so Castle Country Radio had the opportunity to speak over the telephone with Laura Haskell with the Division of Water Resources to discuss all things water.

“Last year was actually a very good year for snowpack and water. A lot of the reservoirs were able to fill pretty well but then over the summer we had a record dry year for Utah. So it was hot, it was dry and a lot of water got used up, more than in a typical year, much more. So our reservoirs are, you know a little lower than normal going in and then with the snow pack being a little bit lower and the soils being so dry, we don’t expect them to fill as much as they normal would,” stated Haskell.

Although many folks have enjoyed the warm temperatures in the valleys those temperatures are melting the snowpack in mountains earlier than usual. “The snowpack peaked almost about 10 days earlier than we normally would and if you can wait you can get these hot days that melt the snow a little faster. It’s kind of a balance you don’t want it to melt too fast because you can get some flooding but if you can melt it fairly quickly than more of it can come into the reservoirs and it doesn’t get lost in the ground and lost kind of on the way to getting to our lakes, and reservoirs, and streams,” explained Haskell.

It’s important that with drought like conditions residents know how to be prepared for summer watering and Haskell shares some good websites to visit, “There are several different websites. If you go to drought.utah.gov there are quite a few links. That’s one option and then there’s the Weekly Lawn Watering Guide that gives you suggestions for each individual county of how many times a week we recommend you water your lawn,” said Haskell. Folks are sure to find some helpful tips and tricks to help conserve water during the summer months.

To find out more about the Division of Water Resources visit their website at https://water.utah.gov/