Precipitation


Variation in annual precipitation within Red Butte Canyon is strongly dependent on elevation (Figure 7). The slope of this relationship is similar to that observed for other mountainous areas within the Great Basin (Houghton 1969), and precipitation at the Salt Lake City reporting station (Salt Lake City International Airport) falls on this relationship. Thus, while lacking continuous precipitation records available for Salt Lake City can be used as a preliminary basis for estimating mean annual precipitation at different locations within the canyon.

Fig. 7. Relationship between mean annual precipitation and elevation for Red Butte Canyon storage gages Red Butte #1 - #6. Shown also is the mean annual precipitation for the primary station of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City International Airport) as the open symbol.