The past couple years of below-average snowfall were not kind to the Great Salt Lake. Last June, park officials were forced to pull all boats out of the Salt Lake Marina due to the dropping water levels which, last November when the lake hit record-low water levels, was completely bone-dry.
Well, the record snowfall this year proved to be the boon that Utah needed. The spring melt is hitting right about now and it’s dumping water back into the Great Salt Lake. That’s allowing the Great Salt Lake Marina to re-open for business, as they announced yesterday that they’ll begin re-loading boats back into the water from where they’ve sat in the parking lot this fall and winter. And park officials are predicting the water line could go up as much as six feet as the snow continues to melt.
“We did not think we were going to be putting any boats back in the lake this year,” said Dave Shearer, park manager of the Salt Lake Marina. “We might come up another two to three feet. We’ve already come up over three feet.”
“On a normal year, we’ll come up two feet during the spring runoff before we drop two feet by evaporation,” he continued. “I expect we’ll come up a total of five to six feet this year and probably only drop one foot.”
That’s incredible news for a state that’s been hit hard by the recent droughts. That said, it will take more than just one bomber season of snow to fix the drought in the western U.S.
