Lake St Clair water levels 2020

And the prognosis for Huron is looking worse and worse. We are up 5 ft from the low levels in 2013. This is a crazy amount of change for the great lakes.

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Blueone said:
Water levels today are 6" higher than this date last year. To make things worse a Nor'easter is expected tonight at 30 knots

https://putinbaydaily.com/2020/02/0...zg0sn9j70_qTs10c_l3Ago3sZ5Tb_Q9SRulvAhi9pBFW8
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Blue, explain to us non-Great Lakers how the levels get so high, and why they aren't able to control them more. I thought that there were all sorts of control structures/hydro-projects along the way that could manage that better. Explain it to me......

Jaybeaux
 
Jaybeaux said:
Blue, explain to us non-Great Lakers how the levels get so high, and why they aren't able to control them more. I thought that there were all sorts of control structures/hydro-projects along the way that could manage that better. Explain it to me......

Jaybeaux
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Thanks... just watched Nancy tear up a speech...still have tears from Rush getting the freedom medal and watched a service man come home to his family... and all the while having 3 vodkas .... :)
So despite all that here it goes..for you... Superior has the soo locks... Erie the welland canal and there are number of other controls thru out the lakes but they have little control over making drastic changes in water level... so think of it like a funnel... only so much water can come out of the lakes into the st Lawrence ...you can open it up a bit and you can slow it down a bit but not drastically either way.... so if you get too much rain, ice, runoff etc...the funnel will over flow.... not enough precipitation the funnel will empty...like back in 2013. So basically with the flooding they can’t open the faucet to solve the problem and subsequently they can’t turn off the faucet when we don’t get enough precipitation.

There has been debate to get better control but it always fails over cost vrs return. Things have been bad the last couple of years and it looks like this year might be worse... so I suspect this debate will probably get resurrected..but who knows
 
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The GL's are often called "inland seas." They hold an incredible amount of the world's fresh water and cover almost 100,000 square miles of area. When they are several feet above normal levels, even nature can't correct it quickly. If you look at the nature outflows, they're a relatively small funnel indeed.

Summer '19 was an interesting lesson in the power of seiches (wind-driven tide). We had a lot of easterly winds, or at least, the impact of them made it seem like we had a lot of them. I couldn't help but thinking that each time I trudged through an extra foot of water, that much water wasn't flowing over the falls at the other end of Lake Erie.
 
The outflows of the Great Lakes system are quite limited in capacity. The inflows are VAST and variable with short term and long term weather patterns.

Virtually all of the water from the upper lakes has to flow south through three relatively small river systems to get to the ocean. Superior flows though the St Marys River into Huron/Michigan (Huron Michigan are connected at the North ends and generally can stay at the same level). Then ALL of those 3 lakes outflow has to go through the St Clair river and Lake St Clair in lake Erie. That is a narrow river considering the vast lakes that feed it. Then ALLLLLL of that flow has to go through the Niagara river into Lake Ontario. Then ALLLLLLLL of that water has to exit via the St. Lawrence River.

So outflows are really constrained. There are Hydro Electric Facilities and lock systems, but the capacity to truly control lake levels in a meaningful way is not there. And a major problem is that if the final lock/Hydro systems are full open on the St Lawrence, it would flood out Montreal.
 
Creekwood said:
And a major problem is that if the final lock/Hydro systems are full open on the St Lawrence, it would flood out Montreal.
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Darn French.... The Time to exchange the water in St Clair on average is 7 days...pretty amazing when you think about it
 
Going to be an interesting year for sure. At the high water point last year, we were only about 3+ inches from the bottom of our dock, which is a fixed dock.
I am planning on going up into Lk Huron for 4th of July (Port Austin again) and it will be a long slow ride up the St Clair river with the high water and wake concerns. I know I can shoot right down the middle and stay 600' off shore but that is only if all the fishing boats are not populating the entire river. I just plan on taking off early in the morning and enjoying the ride (it is way better than being at work) while enjoying the time out on the water.
 
Our marina has 100% floating docks, but another foot or two of depth and I think the on shore electrical distribution boxes could be flooded so possibly no power. Most of the parking lot would be underwater as well. This is really not good at all. The shore erosion issues are huge as well. It is absolutely shocking how much of our beach properly is now gone. And we are well back the waters edge (less and less though with each storm and as water rises). Some of our cottage neighbors are in real trouble already. MANY septic systems are located in relation to the historical high water lines and will be compromised if things get too high. We have a big issue happening.
 
This is pretty crazy. Hansen's Island was sad to visit last year. It's hard to believe not to many years ago some of the residents around the lake couldn't get their boats to their houses do to shallow water.
 
Just got back from our summer place. The water levels have been so high that the beach erosion continues. This is a shot of the beach. Luckily the ice is protecting for now from the westerlies (right is west and open water). For perspective, the beach/shore line used to be about 60 ft further out 5 years ago (well past the outside of the ice that is there now). That sign that is falling down was an emergency number sign that well back from the water up in the dunes. Luckily we are a bit elevated and our cottage is not in danger. But losing 60ft of the nicest part of our lot is not great.

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Beaches on the south end of Lake Michigan are washing away fast. Dry slips in New Buffalo are impossible to find and if the USACE projections come true NB could lose another 200-300 slips.

MM
 
Michigan City last week...thankfully it appears we will be good for the 2020 season...

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