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When the weather gets dangerous on the Great Salt Lake, staff of the state-run marina will hoist a red flag to warn boaters off northern Utah's inland sea.

But that service, dependent on specific data from a National Weather Service monitoring station on the briny, 75-mile-long, 40-mile-wide lake, was not available to sailors launching into a stormy Bear Lake late Monday, where a ski boat capsized and four of the seven people aboard perished in wind-whipped, 6-to-10 foot waves.

"That's possible at Great Salt Lake Marina because they have weather stations there," Ty Hunter, boating program manager for the Utah State Parks Department, said on Thursday. "But there is really no 'weather warning' capabilities for any [other] inland waters in the United States."

Killed in the frigid waters of the roiling lake Monday were Ogden-area physician Lance Capener, 46; his daughters Kelsey, 13, and Kilee, 7; and their friend, 13-year-old Siera Hadley.

Kathryn Capener, 42; Tiffany Stoker, 14, and Tylinn Tilley, also 14, were pulled alive from lake after spending up to five hours in the 53-degree waters.

The two girls were released from Logan Regional Hospital on Tuesday, after treatment for hypothermia. Kathryn Capener, upgraded to good condition on Thursday, could be released by the weekend, doctors say.

Leisa Stockdale, a spokeswoman for the Capener family, said Kathryn Capener is expected to make a full recovery.

Hunter said that both data and staffing limitations make the prospects for adding such Great Salt Lake-like warnings to smaller lakes in Utah, or elsewhere, a near impossibility.

"As for our other lakes, we have had discussions with the National Weather Service, but they say it's just very hard to get those sorts of forecasts together" with limited meteorological staffing and lack of data feeds specific to the wildly varying micro-weather systems that would be involved, he explained.

David Shearer, harbor master at Great Salt Lake Marina, said there are numerous other reasons that comparing the 1,700-square-mile body of water to the 118-square-mile Bear Lake is nonsensical.

Boaters launching onto the Great Salt Lake receive the same kind of data-rich warnings sailors do from the Coast Guard when heading out on the Great Lakes — and that is only because "we have weather stations everywhere around the lake, including two inside the marina itself," Shearer said.

Great Salt Lake's salinity — seven times that of the Pacific Ocean — also makes it a unique, often dangerous place to sail when fresh water lakes are not.

"We call it 'boating in mercury,' " Shearer said. "The density of the waves due to that salinity can be challenging, very rough. A 5-foot wave on the Great Salt Lake will hit you with a lot more energy than a 5-foot wave on the ocean."

Add to that the presence of a large, flat desert to the west, mountains to the east and a lake about 20 feet deep on average, and waves can get as high as 10-12 feet.

"Because it's so big, you can have three different conditions on this lake all at the same time," Shearer said. "There may be high winds and violent thunderstorms on one end, and great sailing conditions on the other."

NWS meteorologist Kevin Barjenbruch confirmed that while forecasts on Monday did note the potential for high winds as a storm front moved through northern Utah, there were no special advisories or warnings specific to Bear Lake.

The Salt Lake City weather bureau does not offer, and is not equipped to provide a dedicated marine warning system per se, and the availability of data from the remote, sparsely populated Bear Lake area, in particular, is sparse.

Perhaps the closest weather forecasts to the spot where the boat capsized, some 6 miles north of the Utah border, were for Garden City (about 10 miles southwest of the tragedy) and Randolph (roughly 15 miles to the southeast).

Stockdale, the Capener family spokeswoman, preferred not to discuss "what ifs," regarding whether a Great Salt Lake-like warning system should have been in place at Bear Lake Marina when the family and friends set out on the lake straddling the Utah-Idaho border on Monday.

"I wouldn't be able to comment on that. I do know they had no concerns about going out on the lake when they went," she said. "I'm sure they [marina staff] do everything they can to make sure it's safe."

In a statement released Thursday, Stockdale added: "The day before the accident was an ordinary day for the Capener family. If there is something Kathryn would want people to take away from this tragedy, it is to cherish every day with your children and spouse because you don't know when it will be the last day spent with them."

Meanwhile, the Rich County Sheriff's Office continued Thursday to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

Sheriff Dale Stacey has issued only one statement since the deaths, noting that all parties had flotation devices and that stormy weather had washed over and capsized the Capener craft. The sheriff's office has yet to provide additional details.

Twitter: @remims