More on the Decline of the Great Salt Lake

A couple of weeks ago I commented on the net decline of water in the Great Salt Lake over the past year (see Status of the Great Salt Lake).

Following a media briefing by Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed, the low lake levels are now getting press coverage in the Salt Lake Tribune (see Great Salt Lake again dips to 'scary low level') and Deseret News (How is the health of the Great Salt Lake).  

This year's decline is especially disappointing because our April 1 snowpack was 96 to 109 percent of median in basins that drain to the Great Salt Lake.    

Source: NRCS

Although snowpack measured by SNOTEL stations on April 1 doesn't tell the whole spring runoff story, it's not encouraging that we will probably see about a 2 foot decline in lake level in a year during which we reached close-to-median snowpack.

The figure below has been adapted from the 2nd Edition of my book Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth and shows the area of the Great Salt Lake at several elevations.  We are currently at 4192 feet in the south arm and a bit under 4192 feet in the north arm, so just a bit above the 4191 foot level that is indicated.  

As we dip below this level and approach 4180 feet, the Great Salt Lake begins to become increasingly confined to a northwest to southeast oriented corridor.  

A Great Salt Lake if we can save it.  A Great Salt Finger Lake if we can't.