This guide features selected resources about the effects of climate change and drought on the Great Salt Lake, Utah.
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| NASA Photo. Great Salt Lake June 1985 | NASA Photo. Great Salt Lake July 2022 |
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth largest in the world. Birds rely on the lake, a critical link in the Pacific Flyway between North and South America. Every year 10 million birds from 338 different species come to rest, eat and breed during migrations of a thousand miles or more. With the decline of other lakes, GSL is increasingly important to these species.
Due to its shallowness (an average of 14 feet deep and a maximum of 35 feet deep), the water level can fall dramatically during dry years and rise during wet years. The average daily value of Great Salt Lake hit a new record low July 3, 2022, when it dropped to 4190.1 as measured at the Salt Air gauge location. (Utah Division of Water Resources)
