The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, which supplies drinking water to Bountiful and irrigation water across Davis County, spent the 2026 water year under drought restrictions after snowpack collapsed to record lows.

The statewide picture is just as grim. Utah closed the water year on Oct. 1 with reservoir storage at 45% of capacity, down 14 percentage points from the year before, according to ABC4. The April 1 snowpack measurement was the lowest since manual tracking began in the 1930s.

Utah's statewide snowpack peaked March 9 at 8.4 inches of snow water equivalent, then vanished in late-March warm spells. The thin snowpack triggered historic low runoff across nearly half of the state's monitored waterways. By the end of August, 21 of 82 stream forecast points had recorded their lowest April-to-July runoff ever. Another 17 recorded their second lowest.

Gene Shawcroft, chair of the Colorado River Authority of Utah, said at a Sept. 14 meeting of the Upper Colorado River Commission that "the April snowpack was the worst on record and not by a little bit, but by a very large margin," Fox 13 reported.

Weber Basin felt the squeeze early. At the district's April 23 board meeting, water supply manager Riley Olsen reported snow water equivalent at 17% of a typical year, down from 39% the month before. The district's water supply report described conditions as setting records for the driest year ever recorded. Pineview Reservoir, a key storage site for the region, was not expected to fill during the 2026 water year.

General Manager Scott W. Paxman had flagged the trouble even earlier. At the district's Feb. 26 board meeting, Paxman said the board would "need to discuss a delayed start and possible drought restrictions for the coming irrigation season." The board maintained those restrictions by April.

Some basins fared far worse than the statewide average. The Upper Sevier sat at 5% of capacity, San Pitch at 6%, Beaver at 7% and Southeastern Utah at 16%. Utah still ranked third among western states in reservoir storage, behind Montana and Washington.

Late-summer monsoon rains offered partial relief. Valley regions ended the water year at 106% of median precipitation, and mountain soil moisture recovered to 43% of saturation by Oct. 1. But the dry spring also fueled an early wildfire season that included three of the six largest fires in Utah history.

Weber Basin serves drinking and irrigation water across Davis, Weber, Summit, Morgan and Box Elder counties, including Bountiful and the Bountiful Irrigation District. No end-of-water-year storage figure for the district has been released, and the 2027 water year began Oct. 1.