ksl.com

Weekend slides forced the closure of at least three canyon roads over the weekend and emergency officials are bracing for more moving debris because of steady rain predicted Monday.

Rocks tumbled down the hillside Sunday in Davis County’s Farmington Canyon, forcing the area to be shut down for at least 48 hours. This latest slide followed one up Santaquin Canyon and in Beaver Canyon, both closing roads until further notice.

In Beaver Canyon, two brothers on their way to a favorite fishing spot at 12:30 p.m. Sunday became unwitting witnesses to the aftermath of a tremendous amount of mud and debris that fell onto state Route 153.

The brothers, Shilo Joseph and James Joseph, captured the event on videotape using their cell phones.

“Approximately eight miles up the canyon, we were captivated to see the road covered in rocks, roots, branches, and mud. The destructive nature of the mud slide bathed the road in a natural mass of muck,” Shilo Joseph said. “A boulder approximately the size of a wreaking ball was set directly in the center of the river along with a newly formed dam from the debris.”

In Davis County, the sheriff’s office reported the Farmington Canyon road closed for 48 hours due the instability of the hillsides. Rocks covered the road at the first switchback, but no injuries were reported in the 4:10 p.m. slide., despite an emergency services manager and a deputy being on scene when the rocks came down.

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sltrib.com

Water and weather experts are fairly certain that five to seven consecutive days of high temperatures will bring widespread flooding. Less predictable, however, are mudslides and debris flows that can swallow roadways and structures with little warning.

The spate of landslides reported since Saturday after heavy rains in northern Utah is an unsettling reminder that flood season in the mountains is precarious in more ways than one. And with each passing day, the time frame for melting record amounts of snow at high elevations becomes more compressed.

If temperatures suddenly rose to normal — or above normal — creeks and rivers in much of Utah would jump their banks, according to Brian McInerney, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service.

That most likely would lead to more mudslides, too, said Rich Giraud, senior geologist with the Utah Geological Survey.

The average high temperature for valley locations in northern Utah during the first week of June is 82 degrees. But the forecast for the next five to seven days calls for relatively cool temperatures, according to the weather service, with highs ranging from 60 degrees to the mid-70s. Rain showers Tuesday should give way to partly cloudy skies for the remainder of the week.

A string of days with average to high temperatures could result in a quick melt that would continue to soak and destabilize already saturated soils, particularly on steep slopes, Giraud said.

“You really can’t forecast landslides. In terms of timing, we can’t do that,” he said. “But when we have above-normal precipitation and a lot of snowmelt, the potential increases. If it warms up, we may start to see a lot of landslides.”

Davis County, with its steep canyons, has had a history of mudslides and debris flows, including a number in 1983, a year remembered for widespread flooding, Giraud said.

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