This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Less than a month after filing, a second application to transfer water rights for the planned Stratos data center project in Box Elder County has been withdrawn.

Murray Hollow L.C. filed a brief notice with the Division of Water Rights on May 22 requesting cancellation of its change application. The Holladay-based company has rights to around 11 acre-feet, or enough water to meet the needs of 22 Utah households, in Hansel Valley near the northern tip of the Great Salt Lake.

The notice did not say why Murray Hollow opted to withdraw the application, or indicate whether it plans to refile. The Division of Water Rights published the notice Wednesday along with an acknowledgment and formal cancellation by State Engineer Teresa Wilhelmsen, who oversees the division.

The application received nearly 700 letters of protest from Utahns across the state who expressed concerns about wildlife, drought and the shrinking Great Salt Lake.

The project’s primary backer, TV personality Kevin O’Leary, has denied that his sprawling data complex will harm the environment.

For full story, sltrib.com

The post Second water right application for Kevin O’Leary’s Utah data center project withdrawn appeared first on Park Record.

This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

March’s heat wave is expected to persist until the weekend, and it’s creating dangerous avalanche conditions in Utah’s backcountry.

The National Weather Service reports Salt Lake City fell one degree short of the record-high temperature for March on Wednesday, hitting 79 degrees. The capital city will likely exceed that record Thursday, however, and weather stations across the state, from Laketown near Bear Lake to Scipio, have already seen unprecedented heat for the month.

Elsewhere, places like Salt Lake City, Provo, Cedar City, Wellington and Kodachrome Basin set daily maximum temperature records on Wednesday.

“A lot of these temperatures we’re hitting are more attuned to early June than mid-March,” said Julie Cunningham, a meteorologist with the Weather Service. “That just goes to show how anomalous this heatwave is.”

The warm weather hasn’t boded well for the state’s already low snowpack. The Utah Avalanche Center upgraded the backcountry to “considerable” danger as daytime temperatures spike. The large amounts of melting water will create unstable layers and “large, destructive natural avalanches,” the center noted.

A special avalanche advisory is in effect for all mountain regions in Utah from Thursday until 6 a.m. Monday.

“Wet avalanches could occur on all aspects and at all elevations,” the avalanche center reported, “including places that typically stay colder this time of year.”

The National Weather Service noted that cooler temperatures could settle over the state over the weekend, but temperatures will stay unseasonably warm.

“We’ll still be 10 to 15 degrees above normal,” Cunningham said.

The forecast also looks bone-dry, with any rain or new snow in the next week unlikely.

Snowpacks across Utah remain well below average for this time of year, according to National Resources Conservation Service data.

The northeastern Uintas and Raft basins have fared the best this season, with snowpacks at 73% and 78%, respectively, of the 30-year median. The Bear River, Weber-Ogden and Duchesne basins range between 52% and 66% of normal. All other watersheds in Utah have snowpacks that are less than half of normal for this time of year. The Park City area’s snowpack is at or near its record low.

Astronomical spring officially begins on Friday.

The post Avalanche risk reaches ‘considerable’ amid record heat wave appeared first on Park Record.

Utahns — outside of Park City, anyway — celebrated a series of storms that dumped snow statewide over the weekend.

The state still has a ways to go to reach a normal snowpack for this time of year, however, and is nowhere on track to have the record-breaking winter seen last year. A flurry of storms forecasted in the days ahead, however, could bump snowpack in certain basins to depths typical for January.

Data beamed in from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service’s SNOTEL sites — weather stations across the state that collect snow data — show Utah’s snowpack combined is at 73% of median. None of Utah’s hydrologic basins have snow totals near or above average except the Raft River Mountains, which mostly drain into the Snake River and will do little to relieve the state’s water shortages.

In the Great Salt Lake’s watershed, the Bear River basin and Weber-Ogden basin have the highest snowpack, at 84% and 80% of median, respectively — about the same as before the weekend’s snowstorms. Storms over the last few days bumped the Jordan River and Tooele basins into just over 70% of median.

For full story, see The Salt Lake Tribune

The post Snowpack lagging well short of average, way behind last year appeared first on Park Record.