Great Salt Lake is famous for its ability to amplify local storms, in particular winter-storms where the Lake Effect can result in more mountain snow. However, it turns out this linkage also works in reverse — with some potentially dire consequences.
“So, in this study, what we found is that as the water body in the Great Salt Lake decreases, that leads to a decrease in the precipitation locally,” said Wei Zhang. Zhang is an assistant professor of climate science at Utah State University and one of the authors of the recent study that linked declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake to a reduction in local precipitation.
“And that signal is very strong and robust,” Zhang said.
That's significant because, according to their series of meteorological models, less water means less precipitation which leads to less water and thus less precipitation, and so on. Thus creating its own cycle of drought. And this cycle still holds even after two years of significant winters.
“Yes, the past two winters were both wetter than normal," Zhang said, "but the water level in the Great Salt Lake is still below the healthy level right now.”
Zhang's study suggests that not only will the cycle continue, even with wetter winters — it also means exposure to numerous other health effects such as dust emissions transporting contaminants from a drying lakebed to surrounding communities.
“I think it's definitely urgent to take actions to do water conservation,” Zhang said, acknowledging the efforts already underway to get more water into Great Salt Lake.
