Cedar / Beaver River Basin
(April, 2011)

The basin ’s snowpack is much above normal at 158% of average.  At individual sites snowpack ranges from 14% at Little Grassy Snotel (near Upper and Lower Enterprise Reservoirs at 6,100 ft. elevation), to 251% of average at Harris Flat Snotel (east of Brian Head at 7,780 ft. elevation).  March precipitation was near average, bringing the area’s seasonal accumulation (Oct-Mar) to 181% of average.  Sampled soil moisture in runoff producing areas is at 69% of saturation within the upper 2 feet of soil, compared to 46% last year.  Forecasted streamflows (Apr–July) range from 120% to 172% of average.  
Reservoir storage is currently at 89% of capacity.  This is 23% higher than last year at this time.  As of April 1, both Upper Enterprise (9950 acre-feet) and Lower Enterprise (2,672 acre-feet) Reservoirs were full, Minersville Reservoir (23,300 acre-feet, also called Rocky Ford) was 62% full. The Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI) is 3.05 (an 86 percentile) indicating much above average water supply conditions. 
Depending on the rate of warming and precipitation, flooding may be possible on the Beaver River, Coal Creek and other local streams.  Improvements to the Coal Creek drainage from the mouth of Cedar Canyon and through Cedar City should alleviate the high flow problems seen in 2005.  Coal Creek flows peaked at 1,690 cfs in 2005.  The record instantaneous flow was set in 1969 at 4,620 cfs.