Great Lakes Water levels

[bud37]

Not sure if my old eyes are deceiving me but Georgian bay ice seemed further down this past month and Lake Ontario has more beach evident.......hmmm, here we go again....

[km1125]

Went by the marina a couple days ago and it looks like the water is down about 6" from last year at this time, when it was really high. Looks like "normal" levels might be in store for this year.

[Viper]

It could hardly be called a winter this time, higher temps and very little snow which is already evident in diminished run-offs. Should be interesting to see what's in store for levels this year. Torrential downpours might change things though. Gotta love Mother Nature.

[Midnightsun]

Agreed, little snow this year. May be a good thing to get water levels to normal. Last year was very nice, a little higher than normal and remained like that almost the entire season until haul out where the level was down quite a bit and that happened in the last couple of weeks. Probably due to level control in my area more than anything else.

[waybomb]

https://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/Great-Lakes-Information/Great-Lakes-Water-Levels/Water-Level-Forecast/
This is updated, usually by noon, every Friday.

[Cooler]

Our marina water level is probably 18" lower. Our snowfall and precipitation is 55" less than normal this winter. Most of our watershed comes from south coast of Canada and part of UP of Michigan. They were all well below also. We needed to drop at least 10" just to get the water to clear under the pier. Part of last season was spent clearing out junk that would catch in our well. Happy to see the drop. There were a few times last season when fenders were just floating on the water, so we could not get hull protected from finger. Had to have a good 4 way tie. By the way, just to make you guys a little envious, all my polishing, and spring maintenance is done! I am ready to go in the water. Just have to wait 38 days, and hope for continued weather pattern we are in. Temps have been 10 to 20 degrees above normal. Snow is long gone. As of today, I am 2 weeks since 2nd Covid shot. Life is good! er

[km1125]

Here's the current USACE bulleting that covers lakes Michigan and Huron. Looks like they are almost a FOOT below where they were last year, which was at record highs. This is good news for us, as the docks won't be flooded but also won't have to worry about any of the shallows around here, making access to some areas easier. The only downside is that there are fewer 'wade-able' sandbars and you have to get much closer to shore for the little kids!

USACE_water_levels_March2021.jpg