If this summer remains unusually hot and dry, Gwynn expects the lake level could drop another foot, to near 4,194 feet above sea level — roughly the same low it reached in 2004. That lake level of four years ago was the lowest the Great Salt Lake had been since the early 1960s.

Gwynn's not expecting the lake to ever completely dry up, like some scientists predicted in the latter part of the 19th century. However, it is definitely in a multi-year low cycle overall.

Notwithstanding, he also said, "it is a possibility" that some decades hence the Great Salt Lake could rise again to near-record highs, like it did in the mid-1980s — making the pumping of the 1980s needed again. That scenario all depends on the overall moisture for a long term.

The lake's all-time low was about 4,191 feet in 1963. Its all-time high, at 4,212, was not all that long ago, in 1986-87. As of Friday night, the lake level had dropped two 10ths of a foot to 4,195.5 feet. The lake's most recent low was 4,194.1 feet in October 2004.

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E-mail: lynn@desnews.com