Snow depths and cold temps

Right now about a foot of snow on the winter range on the Cache (on the Hardware flats between about 5,500-6,000 ft). Snow on the south facing slopes in the canyons has yet to burn off since mid December. Snow at Bug lake (approx. 8,000 ft) is about 4 feet deep.

Snow depths currently exceed what we have had in the last 3 or 4 winters on the Cache and temperatures are running colder (I was hunting around Randolph Sunday and the temperature was -26 F).

Deer and elk herds still appear healthy but it is still early in the winter season. On a typical year it is not until about the first of February before I start seeing the winter stressed fawns tipping over. We'll see what the rest of the winter brings.

Kevin D said:

(I was hunting around Randolph Sunday and the temperature was -26 F).

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Balmy...

Crazy what a normal snow year looks like.:shock:
In fact, we are still at below average snow levels.

Its still early and deer have their fat... but around here the animals are all driven well off the mountains and into the town. The problem is we got that first big snow, then it warmed and rained... that soaked the snow then we got these big freezing temperatures. Its resulted in about 6" of thick hard frozen snow with another 16" of snow on top of that.

Places we always watched the wintering deer, have none there now. Snow is too deep / frozen for them. Sadly "lower" is in town and I've been seeing road kills continually, even on 25mph roads. I guess everyone packs a cordless saw with them, I see lots of cut off antlers.

We need a warm spell before the next bout of storms... don't think we'll get it. Historically all our big storms come over the next 2 months, at the rate we are heading, we are probably looking at a new major winterkill event like '94, '83 etc.


-DallanC

ridgetop said:

Crazy what a normal snow year looks like.:shock:
In fact, we are still at below average snow levels.

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News last night (Fox and KSL) both showed we are currently over average snow levels in most parts of the state. They were more worried about spring temps now and how fast the snowmelt will occur. We need a gradual melt to be of the most benefit.

-DallanC

At what point does the DWR start supplemental feeding to help the animals out?

DallanC said:

Its still early and deer have their fat... but around here the animals are all driven well off the mountains and into the town. The problem is we got that first big snow, then it warmed and rained... that soaked the snow then we got these big freezing temperatures. Its resulted in about 6" of thick hard frozen snow with another 16" of snow on top of that.

Places we always watched the wintering deer, have none there now. Snow is too deep / frozen for them. Sadly "lower" is in town and I've been seeing road kills continually, even on 25mph roads. I guess everyone packs a cordless saw with them, I see lots of cut off antlers.

We need a warm spell before the next bout of storms... don't think we'll get it. Historically all our big storms come over the next 2 months, at the rate we are heading, we are probably looking at a new major winterkill event like '94, '83 etc.

-DallanC

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We are definitely headed in that direction in some places in the state right now. What area do you live in?

30" +/- 2" mid-mountain on Abajo Mtn (San Juan Unit).

We'll see how it continues, definitely a winter to keep an eye on. Overall though (with the exception of some seriously rabbit infested areas) the winter ranges I've been on still have a lot of food available to them courtesy of our mild summers and falls. The deer, elk, and antelope I've watched have all been able to get to the food on exposed ridges and still appear really fat (central, west, east, and southern utah IDK about the North so much). We'll see.

https://twitter.com/sundanceGMchad Scroll down a little.

The problem is the deer were high on the mtn this year when the bigger storms hit. And as Dallan stated, the warm temps allowed for a dense, high water content snow which then froze and created an ice sheet in this area.

If the forcasted storms over the next 3 months come true the deer herds will take a severe hit. They are comparing this year's weather patterns to 1982/92/97. That should be concerning to everyone who enjoys deer. But there is hope until more snows come. Cross your fingers for good deer weather or we can all argue over the remaining deer come Spring.....

It's hard to be happy, last year we couldn't buy a storm, now they are piling on quick. Hopefully we see some warm temps to melt off some of what's here over the next few weeks. It's supposed to be in the 40s next week, which should get rid of some, but there's also another storm in the forecast which in some areas of the state may just compact and freeze the snow worse. The deer herd has finally built up some, and hopefully Lonetrees prediction isn't staring us in the face, hopefully our deer don't take a nose dive. One good thing might be the DWR can actually go fly and count this year, rather than model it like they've had to. I think a lot of people are waiting on counts down here anyway.

Snotel is a good site to find out snow depths and water amount in the snow. Just go to the map and click on the area you want and it will give you snow depths day to day and water equivalent.

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/webmap...yPart=E&year=2015&month=12&day=30&monthPart=E

You can also find this map on KSL, on there it's a little more mobile friendly.

https://www.ksl.com/?nid=978

Packout said:

If the forcasted storms over the next 3 months come true the deer herds will take a severe hit. They are comparing this year's weather patterns to 1982/92/97. That should be concerning to everyone who enjoys deer. But there is hope until more snows come. Cross your fingers for good deer weather or we can all argue over the remaining deer come Spring.....

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Good thing we have option 2 to save our deer;-) Maybe mother nature will finally get credit for what happens with our herds.