The Great Salt Finger Lake

Given the meager snowpack that generally exists in northern Utah, it's no surprise that the Great Salt Lake is expected to drop to historically low levels this summer.  

Last year the lake dropped to its lowest measured elevation at Saltair, 4190.4 feet.  A look at the observations collected at Saltair by the UGSS since last year shows that the lake reached its maximum elevation in early May and dropped about 2.5 feet through fall.  

Source: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ut/nwis/uv/?site_no=10010000&PARAmeter_cd=62614

The recovery during the winter and spring has thus far been pathetic.  We currently sit at about 4191 feet, nearly 2 feet below where we were last year.  The runoff situation isn't great again this spring.  About the only silver lining is that recent storms have helped the snowpack in the Bear River Basin, which is now running ahead of last year by a bit.  

However, that's not going to help a lot and I suspect we'll make a run at 4189 feet by early fall.  

I've been preparing some material on the future of the Great Salt Lake for the 2nd edition of my book Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth.  I'll be including a bathymetric map of the lake based on work by Dave Tarboton at Utah State to illustrate what will happen as the lake shrinks.  The deepest portion of the lake lies along a northwest to southeast axis.  As the lake shrinks, it will become increasingly confined to a narrow channel along this axis.  Basically, the Great Salt Lake becomes the Great Salt Finger Lake.  

At about 4170 feet, the lake becomes two salt ponds.  That may sound crazy, but the lake is currently down about 20 feet from its most recent high stand in the late 80s.  Another 20 feet and we are there. 

The Modis image below was taken on September 27, 2021when the lake was near its minimum and historical low elevation.  It corresponds quite well with the 4191 foot contour above with a small arm of water wrapping around the north and east side of Fremont Island and a sliver of water along the Jordan River as it flows through what was formerly Farmington Bay to the east of Antelope Island.  

The implications of the withering Great Salt Lake are more dust, less lake-effect snow, and the demise of one of the most important bird habitats and ecosystems in western North America.