1. Utah’s Geography Notes

2. Utah’s Climate
Climate is the “average” weather of a place measured over a long period of time.
Has this week’s weather been a good average for Utah’s climate?
Most people live in Utah’s valleys so we will focus our attention there.
Snow does not often build up in the valleys, but it does pile up deeply in the mountains!
Even if it seems like we have a lot of snow in the mountains, it takes about a foot of snow to equal an inch of rain.

3. Utah’s Climate (continued)
The growing season is shorter in Northern Utah because the cold winters are longer
St. George has a longer growing season than Layton

5. Our Water Supply
Most of our water comes more than 600 miles across California, Washington and through Idaho and Nevada from the Pacific Ocean.
We in the valleys receive about inches of rain per year
Deserts get less than 10 inches per year
Layton is not a desert, but it’s close – it is a steppe climate.

6. Precipitation is a fancy word for rain and snow.

7. Our Water Supply (continued)
Orographic Lifting –

8. Our Water Supply (continued)
Good point of orographic lifting: The Wasatch Range causes the the clouds to precipitate on us and on the mountains – where we store it in reservoirs!
Bad point: There isn’t much water left in the clouds when they get to us.

9. Our Water Supply (continued)
Most rivers in Utah flow to either the Great Salt Lake or to the Colorado River (and from the Colorado eventually to the Pacific Ocean.)

10. Utah’s Three Physical Regions
Basin and Range (Great Basin) is like a huge bowl where no water leaves, most people live in the Basin and Range along what is called the Wasatch Front

11. Utah’s Three Physical Regions
Rocky Mountain Region is made up of two mountain ranges, the Wasatch Mountains and the Uintah Mountains
Most of Utah’s precipitation falls here.
It is difficult to live in the mountains year round so not too many people live there

12. Utah’s Three Physical Regions
Colorado Plateau has many plateaus, plateaus are nothing more than high mountains without any peaks, they are not flat but have long rolling tops, covers the south eastern part of Utah.

13. Utah’s Three Physical Regions
Many of these plateaus are very high in elevation, there also a few mountain ranges in this region,
Used for grazing livestock and farming in the valleys
Utah’s five National Parks are in the Colorado Plateau Region.

15. Utah’s Three Climates
In the Rocky Mountain Region we find the Highland Climate, temperatures and precipitation vary with the elevation. The higher in elevation the colder the temperature and the more precipitation

16. Utah’s Three Climates
In the Basin and Range we see the desert climate, less than ten inches of rainfall per year, cold winters and hot summers.
In the Colorado Plateau we find the Steppe Climate, hot summers, cold winters fifteen inches or less of rainfall per year.

18. Remember elevation and precipitation will still be influential in these areas so there will be lots of overlap.

19. Utah’s Plant and Animal Life
Indigenous – a plant or animal native to an area
Imported – a plant or animal brought to an area by man

20. Utah’s Plant and Animal Life
Indigenous plants
sagebrush
Rabbit Grass
Dwarf Oak
Willows
Creosote Bush
Mesquite
Joshua trees
Stinging Nettle

21. Utah’s Imported Plants
wheat
palm trees
fruit trees
Tomatoes
Russian Olives
Dandelion
Dyers Woad

22. Utah’s Plant and Animal Life
Indigenous Animals
deer
bear
bobcats
coyotes
cougars
bison
rainbow trout
elk

23. Imported Animals
Raccoon
Horses
Cows
Turkey
Bass
Moose

24. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge makes a great summer home for migrating birds