A late-season winter storm will hit the cracked Panguitch Lake Dam in southern Utah on Monday.
Last week, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists issued a flash flood watch for portions of the state after officials discovered a 60-foot-long crack in the dam, which imperils its integrity. Residents downstream were on alert for several days, but the damage didn’t warrant evacuations.
Officials have since relaxed their evacuation warnings, and the NWS canceled its flash flood watch on Saturday. But permanent repairs can’t begin on the dam until after the spring snowmelt. Instead, dam officials are releasing water to keep the water level below the crack. Surprisingly, the late-season winter storm bringing several inches of snow to the area will prove beneficial to their efforts.
“For this storm in particular, it’ll help to slow that snowmelt up there,” NWS meteorologist Hayden Mahan told Newsweek.
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As the storm brings more snow to the area, colder temperatures will accompany it. Since temperatures are in the 30s on Monday, compared with the 60s over the past few days, the snowmelt in the region will slow, easing pressure on the dam.
The heaviest snow will fall farther north in Utah, outside of the Panguitch Lake watershed.
Utah Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Cameron Roden previously told Newsweek that dam officials will monitor lake levels through spring runoff and will finish repairs to the cracked dam after the snow melts.
“Snow in the mountains has yet to come down,” Roden said. “So [officials] will work to control [Panguitch Lake] levels throughout spring runoff.”
The weather forecast for the near future also is acting the dam’s favor.
“We are going to be under a fairly quiet pattern for the next week or so,” Mahan said. “We are not expecting any other major storms to move through…at least for the next week or week and a half, so there’s not a huge threat upstream.”
Utah will likely experience the heaviest snowfall from the current storm system affecting the contiguous U.S., although most of the snow will fall in central and northern parts of the state. The storm will head north on Monday and hit Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Winter weather advisories have been issued for parts of those states, warning drivers of dangerous road conditions.
Highway 143 to Panguitch Lake has reopened, and businesses in Panguitch are open for business. However, lake recreation like ice fishing has been affected by the dam crack. Since water levels are declining because of water releases, ice is thinning in the lake, prompting officials to cancel ice fishing given safety concerns.
The fracture was identified after Utah dams received a C+ grade from the Utah Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2020. The grade implies that Utah infrastructure was “mediocre” and needed attention, according to a report by TV station KTVX in Salt Lake City.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.