SALT LAKE CITY — Water watchers say Great Salt Lake has peaked for the year and will lose water between now and fall. And with a hot, dry summer in the forecast, lake levels could take a step back.
Great Salt Lake typically rises and then falls about 2 feet every year, with snow and then summer heat. But year-over-year, the levels have only gone up since bottoming out in 2022, thanks to a couple of great winters.
It broke even last year and only went up by about a foot and a half this winter.
Utah Snow Survey Program Supervisor Jordan Clayton said the lake gets most of its water from the snowpack, which was hampered a bit by this warm, dry spring.
"Our inflow forecast for how much water we were going to get from all that snow, which again is the main source for water into the lake, did decrease as a result of the early melt and the kind of disappointing April snowpack that we received."
Now the lake is about 2 feet lower than a year ago, plus forecasters are predicting a hotter and drier summer than usual.
Clayton said Great Salt Lake levels may take a step back for the first time in three years, but even if they do, today the lake is still nearly 5 feet higher than the record low back in 2022.
