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The Great Salt Lake Is in Trouble

A lone bison walks along the receding edge of the Great Salt Lake on their way to a watering hole on April 30, 2021, at Antelope Island, Utah.
A lone bison walks along the receding edge of the Great Salt Lake on their way to a watering hole on April 30, 2021, at Antelope Island, Utah. Photo: Rick Bowmer (AP)

Still, the West’s current megadrought, which itself is supercharged by climate change, is bad news for the already-struggling lake. A lot of the runoff for the Great Salt Lake comes from snowfall during the winter. Yet the snowpack in Utah this winter was below normal. Spring also arrived hotter than normal. Soil, meanwhile, was already extremely dry, meaning a lot of the runoff that would normally go into the lake was absorbed by the thirsty ground. The lake normally gains 2 feet (0.6 meters) from spring runoff, but only got a boost of 6 inches (15.2 centimeters) this year.

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