Great Salt Lake falls nearly 3 feet since spring, managers say extended heat wave partly to blame

SALT LAKE CITY — Water managers are hoping a storm coming through Thursday and Friday can begin to turn the tide for Utah’s largest lake.

At the time of publication, the Great Salt Lake had fallen to 4,192.2 feet. That’s just about 3 feet below its spring peak of about 4,195.1 and 4,195.2 feet, according to Deputy Great Salt Lake Commissioner Tim Davis.

It’s normal for Great Salt Lake to fall up to 2.5 feet every summer from a combination of evaporation and upstream water diversions.

But, Davis said the above-average temperatures northern Utah got, particularly in July and so far in October, have contributed to the lake losing about an extra half foot of water.

“You couple that with very little precipitation, then we get what we got,” Davis told KSL NewsRadio. “The lake has continued to come down longer than normal.”

Davis said he was disappointed with how the summer weather played out. But, he’s also still optimistic about the lake’s future.

The Great Salt Lake plummeted to a record low of 4,188.5 feet in November 2022, which is nearly 4 feet lower than where the lake level currently sits.

However, the lake is still nearly six feet shy of 4,198 feet. That’s the level experts consider healthy for Utah’s inland sea.

One positive outcome for the Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake is divided into two portions by a railroad causeway, creating what is now the lake’s north and south arms.

The south arm not only runs alongside nearly all of the Wasatch Front’s population, but it also is home to nearly all of the lake’s vastly diverse ecosystem.

When the Great Salt Lake’s south arm rose by about 5.5 feet from the record snowpack and spring runoff of 2023, the north arm did not see the same success. Managers were trying to preserve as much water for the ecosystem as possible since it nearly collapsed from record-low water levels just months earlier.

So, managers utilized the causeway berm to first help the south arm. But this year, water has been flowing through the causeway between the north and south arms, allowing the north arm’s level to rise closer to the south’s.

A year ago, the north arm was measured at about 4,189 feet. It now sits at 4,191.6 feet, which is about 2.5 feet higher and well within a foot of the south arm’s level.

The two arms haven’t been this close together since late 2022.

“That is good because…we need to treat the lake as a whole lake, not just one arm or the other,” Davis said.

Davis said the flows into the north arm factor into the south arm falling about 3 feet since spring.

‘A call to action’

Despite the blow to the lake level this summer, Davis said he sees it as, “a call to action.”

“We have to make sure that we’re working with everybody in the basin to get more water to the lake,” Davis said.

Davis noted things can change from year to year. Regardless, he said Utahns can and have already made an impact on preserving the Great Salt Lake through water conservation.

“We can’t take our foot off the pedal,” Davis said.

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