Lake Michigan levels drop below long-term average
For the first time in nearly a decade, lake levels in Michigan and Huron are below the long-term average. A report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stated the Lake Michigan-Lake Huron system had an average height of 578 feet. The agency considers Michigan and Huron to be part of one hydrologic system.
That’s slightly lower than the long-term annual average of 578.87 inches. The Army Corps of Engineers has recorded this data since 1918. “It’s taken like three years for it to fall. It’s just taken a long time to drop,” said Michael Skipper, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Water levels peaked in 2020, when Lake Michigan was three feet higher than the long-term average, because of above average precipitation in Lake Michigan’s basin. From 2013 to 2019, Lake Michigan rose over six feet, with nearly two feet of growth in the first six months of 2019 alone, according to National Weather Service data.
The high water levels led to erosion along the shoreline, threatening homes and eating up beaches.
With a surface area of 45,300 square miles, a three-foot water drop in the Lake Michigan-Huron system represents trillions of gallons of water evaporated.
The recent drought was not a major factor in the lower levels. Skipper said higher-than-average rainfall in November offset several months of drought this past fall. “Despite a drier-than-normal fall, there was a pattern shift towards November, slightly above normal precipitation,” he said.
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MHSD’s Ahoy & Farewell III book
documents 30 years of laker history
Ahoy & Farewell III, the third installment of the Marine Historical Society of Detroit’s long-running series marking the MHSD’s 80th anniversary, is now available. The book documents the vessels we welcomed, and those to which we had to bid farewell, during the last 30 years. This 308-page, hardcover book features many color photos, with multiple images of each vessel referenced.
In a departure from the MHSD’s previous volumes, the nearly 308-page, hardcover book includes color photos, with multiple images of every vessel. The book’s authors are marine historians William Moran and Viktor Kaczkowski, and Know Your Ships publisher Roger LeLievre.
“Putting the book together has been a much greater challenge than any of us had expected,” Kaczkowski said. “With the influx of foreign-built new and used tonnage, writing the histories required a lot more research to ensure the information was correct, particularly due to the wide variety of languages that came into play.”
Order Ahoy & Farewell III now at MHSD.org.
