Great Lakes water levels?
 

Lake Ontario water level is looking low for this time of year. What are you guys seeing in the other Great Lakes?

Re: Great Lakes water levels?
 

This is s good site for tracking Grat Lakes water levels


http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/levels.html

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Lake Champlain level is way lower than I have ever seen in the past.

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Forecast for Erie is minus 6 inches from last year.

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Hey Fund, Wasn't erie a little above the long term average last year??

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I don't think so. Maybe a tiny bit early in the season.
Couple inches?

I have the chart at home.

It was higher in general in the last two years than is was in the two before that.... that is for sure.

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Lake Michigan looks to be down again also but its been raining for 4 days now :eek:

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Let me know if you need help building a Ark :drink: I can see it now :rolleyes: If all of the OSO members getting together to built a Ark :eek: can you imagine how fast it would go? and where? and how tricked out it would be :drink: Forget the animals, we have girls in thongs :evilb:

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yep . . .it seemed like it was get'n up there for a bit but its really looking low so far. winter was not to good for us. lake erie never really froze and we did not get much snow after about the end of december. thats not good.

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Georgian Bay seems a bit lower this year, but water levels where we are usually peak in late July/August. Plus its been bone dry there up until very recently. We were a bit conservative putting the docks in last weekend because of this.

(For those that don't know, Georgian Bay is usually referred to as the "6th great lake". But geographically, it drains into Lake Huron, directly affecting its water levels too. At almost 120 miles long and 40+ miles wide, its the largest freshwater bay in the world. :cool: )

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We have been thinking about coming across Lake Huron from Northern Michigan could you tell us the hot spots on Georgian Bay? Also what to avoid. Thanks, JB

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ToTheMax,
I, also, am tempted to do a Georgian Bay tour. Tell us more about it...what towns to drop in at, any can't miss spots, etc.

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I'm subscribed to an Army Corps of engineers newsletter that comes out every few weeks.

As I recall, the last newsletter indicated Lake Michigan is down about 4 inches compared to last year. They do however predict the lake will start to go over last years number in mid July. With all this rain, I bet we go above last year sooner. I hope, anyway.

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I have been out in lake Mi 4 times this year, when going out the channel in Holand it is clear to see the water is down a good 6-8"s and it is recent because ducks are eating the grass that grows on the wall. Like Don said, we have seen a couple inches of rain over the last week now but it will take years to get the levels back. No snow this winter did not help but little lake effect did help keep the water in the lake. There are spots in lake Macatawa that you could take a sailboat in but now is 2ft deep. They are dredging like crazy and the water is horrible, fish are dying and I think it is the dredging, lots of fish are dying and mostly bottom feeders, the poison is being turned up and the fish are eating it.....they blame it on warm water, I call BS and so do others. I am not effected by the level, my boat can float in 1ft and run in 3 so I have a long time before I have to worry :D Next time out I will take a picture, the best defence though is to stay inside the markers and be careful, places where you went last summer will be lower and you do not want to ding a prop.

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You may want to take a look at www.lre.usace.army.mil for Great Lakes Water Levels by the Army Corp of Engineers. It has a lot more info than you'll ever want to know. It is not user friendly unless you know how to navigate it. At the lower right corner of the home page, click on "water level forecasts" and "basin hydrology". They will lead you to all kinds of pdf graphs and tables for your particular lake plus six month forecasts. I just checked and some of the Great Lakes are so far below average that I'd rather not repeat the numbers. Good Luck!

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JB and Ajs,

I'm from the Midland-Penetanguishene area, around the South-East end of the bay, host of the annual PRA poker run in August. Most of the east side of Georgian Bay is comprised the 30,000 islands, ranging from small shoals to real "islands" its quite beutiful all the way up. There are also some interesting small towns on that route. Can't beat it for crusing, as long as you have current charts, its well-marked. There are a few large islands with plenty of beaches not too far away from us, part of Georgian bay Islands National Park. The south part, with Collingwood and Wasaga Beach always has good rough water. The west side has destinations like Meaford (the birthplace of poker runs) and Tobermory, and the flowerpot islands, which I've heard are also beautiful. Killarny and area at the north end is also very nice. Any other questions, let me know

-Max

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I'm also a G.B guy, Parry sound area (San Souci) When you make a trip here you need CHARTS CHARTS CHARTS the bottom is very unforgiving. Its worth the trip!

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I hope your right Waybomb. The low water in St Joseph is a problem.

Carl

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ToTheMax pretty well described many of the points of interest around Geo Bay.
What to avoid ? THE ROCKS !! Not meant to scare you but as mentioned follow your charts. Lots of deep water but most scenic areas are where you might get in trouble as in the 30,000 Islands. If coming do a poker run and follow the pack or hook up with me.
Here are a few pics.
Bob

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LG is higher than usuall. MUCH

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You are lucky LG is up after the dismal snow fall you had there, lake MI may be up more if we wre not diverting so much to the Mississippi. They reason this way they do not have to dredge but soon we will be so low they will have to. The last 5 or more sumers have seen low rain fall, lots of sun and wind, this all adds up to evaporation, this and the fact we have not had a system snow storm in 5 years...lake effect takes away from the levels, some drains back but most is lost in the ground. Even lake Superior is down and they will not open the locks to let us have some, it makes sense though, the rush of water from this would errode the locks and also flush millions of cubic yards of sand and muck into the lake below, it was thrown around for a while but was proven to be more harmfull. Like said the water will come back but over the years it never comes up to the last high level and then goes down past the last low level so overall it is falling. Thats ok though, as the ice caps melt and the oceans rise we will have a huge catch basin for all the water pumped out of New York :( :D

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Hope all this rain will help .. last week before it started was way low. Any lower and hi-lo's at marinas may have trouble - only so much travel... Think NOAA says +3 in June but they know as much as Army Corp Eng - or anyone off the streets guess... In 86 when water was at a all time high they said it would take 15 years of below avg. rainfall to lower the lake 1 ft ... it dropped 3 ft. in 2 seasons go figure. Seen a few stuck good already this year - Big Searay's doing dredging work and Bass boys ripping transoms as usual...

Mitch this Lake Mac fish thing is a mess - I had no idea there was that many fish in the lake :D Have heard half dozen explanations .. 20 deg temp rise in 2 wk period in April is DNR explanation... Army Corp dredged a lot for 4 weeks - who knows what they kicked-up .. maybe all the who knows what Chris Craft or Parke Davis dumped off Dutton Park. Heard they had similar fish prob on Lake St. Claire

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I think we've had something like 3+ inches of rain or so in the last 4 days(Thursday thru Sunday). I would think the ground should be so saturated with water with all this rainfall that the Great Lakes water levels should be rising without too much trouble---at least I have my fingers crossed.

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1000 Ilslands is low too. I think I better look for a spare drive.

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They say that whether or not the Lakes freeze and stop evaporation during the cold months is much more critical to the levels than how much rain falls in the spring.

Spring rains can't recoup the sheer amount of evaporation over the cold months.

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How low compared to last year?