Hoosier Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Lake Michigan is forecasted to reach a record low water level this January through March. The current record low-level occurred in March 1964 at 576.12 ft. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=mkx&storyid=88252&source=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-K Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 It's very obvious when down at the beaches when looking at the breakwalls and what not. Given the warming climate and decreases in winter ice cover, i don't see why the trend won't continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geos Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I've heard that dredging activities in the St. Clair River might be partially to blame as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebo Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I've heard that dredging activities in the St. Clair River might be partially to blame as well. That has long been the rumor here locally that they dredged down to the aquifer and essentially pulled the drain on the Great Lakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAFF Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Even the lake level in the Detroit river are near record lows. Many docks and boat lifts which normally stand in 3' of water have rocks under them too!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tropical Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Let's empty that bad boy out so we can get rid of spring lake breezes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisconsinwx Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Let's empty that bad boy out so we can get rid of spring lake breezes! That would also mean for snow near the lake in the wintertime! Also, quicker freezes in autumn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geos Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 That has long been the rumor here locally that they dredged down to the aquifer and essentially pulled the drain on the Great Lakes. Even the lake level in the Detroit river are near record lows. Many docks and boat lifts which normally stand in 3' of water have rocks under them too!!! It can't be that strong of a correlation to the dredging then. Gotta take a look at Lake Erie... Yeah Lake Erie is lower too. The rock types that underlies the Detroit river is shale. Water does not permeate to any significant degree through shale. The river along with Lake Huron, St. Clair, and Lake Erie have dropped. All dredging is going to do is speed up the flow of water through there. From a geologic standpoint, the land on the northern and eastern side of the Great Lakes is undergoing isostatic rebound. That term refers to the land rebounding up since the last ice age. The continental ice mass pressed down on the land for thousands of years now the land is trying to reach that equilibrium again. Geologist say with time the outlet of the Great Lakes from Lake Erie westward will not be over Niagara Falls, but through the Chicago River/Calumet River-Ship Canal or through the Maumee River in Ohio! An article that mentions isostatic rebound on Lake Huron. http://www.stratford...ecord-low-level But, for the short term it would help if the Great Lakes Basin experienced a prolonged wet period to recover water levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Nice post Geos ^^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSUBlizzicane2007 Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Dredging is an overstated problem. People said the same thing about the St. Mary's River with respect to Lake Superior and how Superior's water level had dropped tremendously the past decade... yet within the past few years, Lake Superior has rebounded well. Considering the way this past summer went, it is not surprising that Lake Michigan-Huron is low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAFF Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Was at the mouth of Lake Erie wher the Detroit river exits the channel today. Here the lake still seems very low. I would say 20" lower than the water line on the breakwalls. I hope all the snow melt up north will aid in replenishing the lake. By looking at the snow maps Northern Ontario did very well in the snow department. Lets all hope the low water is ats its peak and the tide begins to shift once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartyOn Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Natural cycle of lakes. History shows extreme low levels and periods of very high levels. Bill Deedler had a great write up on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonger Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 This thread should be interesting after the melt hits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAFF Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Natural cycle of lakes. History shows extreme low levels and periods of very high levels. Bill Deedler had a great write up on this. Any idea of where this write up was?? Love to read up on it. I have always watched the lake levels since I was a kid. Growing up on the Detroit river was such a treat. Now days the waters of my youth look so much different but in a good way. The water clarity has greatly improved over the years but so has the weed growth throught the river. Certain spots get so chocked up with weeds you cant travel down them with a boat unless its early spring. The invasion of alien fish has me worried for the future of the lakes. Thats a whole new discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-K Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 This thread should be interesting after the melt hits. drop in the bucket...especially with the lakes mostly ice free all winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherbo Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 drop in the bucket...especially with the lakes mostly ice free all winter. actually, LM is forecasted to recover from last years deficits but def not the longterm lows. Even ice free, it has recovered from it's record lows already. With a wet Spring, I've heard a 10-12" rise by late May could be in store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-K Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 actually, LM is forecasted to recover from last years deficits but def not the longterm lows. Even ice free, it has recovered from it's record lows already. With a wet Spring, I've heard a 10-12" rise by late May could be in store. This very much goes against what i've heard from a red tagger on this board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherbo Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 This very much goes against what i've heard from a red tagger on this board. http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/greatlakes/hh/datalinks/PrinterFriendly/weekly.pdf up an inch in a month and forecasted 4" in the next month (4-15-13), is very substantial, and that doesn't include all the snow to still melt in the superior basin up further north during may/june. There's a large area of 16-25" + of water laden snow on east side of superior waiting to melt. ...and areas of 10" water equiv snow in the UP alone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-K Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/greatlakes/hh/datalinks/PrinterFriendly/weekly.pdf up an inch in a month and forecasted 4" in the next month (4-15-13) is substantial, and that doesn't include all the snow to still melt in the superior basin up further north during may/june. There's a large area of 16-25" + of water laden snow on east side of superior waiting to melt. ...and areas of 10" water equiv snow in the UP alone LM is 14" under last year and only added 1" during one of the wettest early spring months in recent history. Even another 4" before summer evap season isn't going to do much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonger Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 LM is 14" under last year and only added 1" during one of the wettest early spring months in recent history. Even another 4" before summer evap season isn't going to do much. 14 inches under last year for today? Last year the melt was completely done for March 20th... NONE of it has melted this year. I would be shocked if the lake was higher today than 1 year ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherbo Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 LM is 14" under last year and only added 1" during one of the wettest early spring months in recent history. Even another 4" before summer evap season isn't going to do much. Thing is tho, Superior is only -11" for longterm, and +1" compared to last year. The amount of snow to melt in Superior is pretty dramatic. Superior not being critically low, will allow a lot of that water thru the soo and into MI/Huron. Still, we need a decently wet Spring to keep the rise sustained before the rise levels off in Summer. Erasing last years -14" departure is "possible".... we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonger Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Thing is tho, Superior is only -11" for longterm, and +1" compared to last year. The amount of snow to melt in Superior is pretty dramatic. Superior not being critically low, will allow a lot of that water thru the soo and into MI/Huron. Still, we need a decently wet Spring to keep the rise sustained before the rise levels off in Summer. Erasing last years -14" departure is "possible".... we'll see. The overall pattern to our weather changed in mid January... The western drought will still likely give us a drier and warmer than normal summer, just look at the 1930's, which were pretty much as hot as today... Low lake levels, I can't deny that this summer will be much different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherbo Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 The overall pattern to our weather changed in mid January... The western dought will still likely give us a drier and warmer than normal summer, just look at the 1930's, which were pretty much as hot as today... Low lake levels, I can't deny that this summer will be much different. I'm not gonna deny that chances for a drier/warmer Summer aren't high, but nothing is written in stone at this point. Just look how Winter turned around in such a short span of time.... I'm an eternal optimist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geos Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 Cool site to track lake levels. Michigan-Huron, Erie, and Ontario on the way up. Superior is still falling or near steady. http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/dbd/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherbo Posted April 14, 2013 Share Posted April 14, 2013 Cool site to track lake levels. Michigan-Huron, Erie, and Ontario on the way up. Superior is still falling or near steady. http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/dbd/ mich/huron is up 2" in the last month and projected 3" in the next month http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/GreatLakesInformation/GreatLakesWaterLevels/WaterLevelForecast/WeeklyGreatLakesWaterLevels.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geos Posted April 14, 2013 Share Posted April 14, 2013 mich/huron is up 2" in the last month and projected 3" in the next month http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/GreatLakesInformation/GreatLakesWaterLevels/WaterLevelForecast/WeeklyGreatLakesWaterLevels.aspx Nice. With all the water locked up around Lake Superior I would think so! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherbo Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Since March 19th, Lake MI/Huron has risen 5"... with a projected rise of another 3" by May 19th. This will put the Lake 7" below this time last year and 21" below the long term average. It's visibly higher to the eye. Superior has risen only 1" since March 19th, and is only 4" shy of its mark this time last year.... and 13" below long term. It also has a projected rise of 3" in the next few weeks. Was reading John Dee and he says snow pack had 8.5" of water locked in it there before 1.5" of liquid equiv fell.... 10" of water will help Superior erase its yearly deficit and hopefully flow some love into MI/Huron in the next coming months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowMeHunter Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Since March 19th, Lake MI/Huron has risen 5"... with a projected rise of another 3" by May 19th. This will put the Lake 7" below this time last year and 21" below the long term average. It's visibly higher to the eye. Superior has risen only 1" since March 19th, and is only 4" shy of its mark this time last year.... and 13" below long term. It also has a projected rise of 3" in the next few weeks. Was reading John Dee and he says snow pack had 8.5" of water locked in it there before 1.5" of liquid equiv fell.... 10" of water will help Superior erase its yearly deficit and hopefully flow some love into MI/Huron in the next coming months. Nice.. On the up side, all the inland lakes and ponds will jump back to very healthy levels and Lake Superior will also likely make a big jump in it's levels once all the snow in it's drainage basin melts. There is also very deep snow still on the ground in the Superior drainage areas of MN and Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowMeHunter Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Record fail but close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilbertfly Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Looks like a briefing regarding this matter is scheduled for tomorrow.... http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/advisories/20130418-advisory-greatlakes.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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