Video Shows Great Salt Lake Water Levels as Utah Hit With Heavy Snowpack

• The Great Salt Lake in Utah is benefiting from the heavy snowpack, with its water levels now three feet above its all-time low in November 2022.
• A video of the lake taken by a drone has been shared by the Utah Division of Water Resources.
• The lake's levels are still below average for this time of year, but AccuWeather forecasts them to rise another three to four feet as the snowpack melts.
• There is a risk of flooding associated with the snowpack.
• In May, the precipitation forecast is below average, giving the snowpack a chance to melt without adding to the runoff.

Heavy snowpack in Utah is benefiting Great Salt Lake, and the lake's water levels are slowly recovering from an all-time low in November.

Utah has been plagued by a megadrought that has eaten away at the lake's water levels. But after a series of high-precipitation weather events, the entire state has been removed from the U.S. Drought Monitor Map's classifications of extreme and exceptional drought, a drastically different scenario from March 2022, when more than one-third of the state suffered from extreme drought.

A video shared by the Utah Division of Water Resources on Twitter shows how the Great Salt Lake has benefited from higher-than-normal precipitation the last few months.

As of April 5, the lake was at an elevation of 4,189.7 feet according to a website showing its levels, roughly three feet above its all-time low in November.

"A look from the sky at #GreatSaltLake last week. The lake has risen 3 feet since its historic low in Nov. As a comparison, Great Salt Lake barely rose 1 foot all of last year," the Utah Division of Water Resources tweeted with the video on Wednesday.

The video is a 25-second clip taken by a drone flying over the lake. It has been viewed more than 2,700 times as of 2:45 p.m. ET.

Although on the rise, the lake's levels are still below average for this time of year. At 4,190.7 feet on April 5, 2022, levels were a foot higher than they were Wednesday. In April 2021, levels were even higher at 4,192.17 feet.

Levels are expected to rise this spring, with AccuWeather Senior meteorologist Dale Mohler forecasting the lake to jump another three to four feet above its current levels as a snowpack of 200 percent above average begins to melt in warmer temperatures.

The snowpack is anticipated to aid the water levels, but it also poses the risk of floods. Mohler said with the snowpack, there is concern of flooding such as in 1983 when above-average precipitation caused devastating floods.

In 1983, the level of snowpack caused the lake to rise five feet. Although water levels benefited, the quick snowpack melt led to excessive flooding and the lake was plagued with invasive species from the excessive water, according to a report by the Salt Lake Tribune.

"The best thing that could happen would be for temperatures to stay cooler than normal and allow the snow to melt off but not rapidly," Mohler told Newsweek.

Temperatures are expected to stay cool, rising above freezing during the day but falling below freezing again at night, slowing the snowpack melt in a freeze-thaw cycle. In May, the precipitation forecast is below average, giving the snowpack a chance to melt without inundating it with more precipitation to add to the runoff.