TWO RIVERS (NBC26) -- After seeing near record low levels several years ago, Lake Michigan is close to all-time highs and that is causing issues alone the lakeshore.
There are three things that affect the lake levels: Precipitation, runoff, and evaporation.
During the spring, the Great Lakes usually rise due to runoff from snow melt. In the summer season, it is rainfall that adds water to the lake. Levels drop during the winter season as evaporation takes place.
Cold air rushing over a relatively warm lake will cause moisture to rise into the atmosphere, sometimes forming lake effect snow.
One big player that can throw off this balance is ice; it acts like a lid preventing water from the lake to escape into the air.
After seeing lake levels in the beginning of 2013, not seen since the mid-1960s, ice coverage has been significant.
Lake Michigan observed more than 50% ice coverage in the last 4 out of 6 year. On average our great lake sees 40% ice coverage during the winter.
How about precipitation? Back-to-back record-breaking years in Green Bay certainly have an impact.
Going back to 2013 until now, states across the Midwest including Wisconsin have seen between 20 to 50 inches of additional moisture. That is like having another year's worth of rain and melted down snow. This clearly added to the water levels.
It is normal to see rising and lowering lake levels, typically seen on as a decadal period, this time around, it's slightly more unusual.
“We are in a different situation now than in the past because we were at near record lows and now we are near record highs and we are expecting into next year, water levels to continue to increase so that is a little be unusual, normally the rate of change between low to high is not so short, not so extreme“ Said Madeline Magee.
The Army Corps of Engineers generates outlooks of the lake levels.
Weather plays an important roll into these projections. The National Weather Service outlook for the winter season shows the Midwest has an equal potential for colder or warmer than normal temperatures and a high than normal potential for precipitation.
“If we have a pretty cold start and start icing over the Great Lakes sooner than normal, what that will do is stop the evaporative process, so the amount of water taken out during the normal winter and fall season is going to be lower than it normally is, and what that will do is when we start out in the spring, we will already have levels that are pretty high, and in fact the forecast from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has us near or at record levels in the spring.” Said Phil Kurimski.
The high-water levels coupled with strong onshore winds have caused damage and erosion along the shoreline.
Beaches act like a buffer, slowing down the waves. But when water goes over the beach, its force can impact the bluff and remove sediment.
Some of the worst affected areas in the Badger State are in Kenosha County where a house had to be taken down because half of the foundation was hanging over an eroded bluff.
“The fall and early winter are really key times for erosion to happen. As you can see behind us, we have lots of wave action. Storms that happen in the fall and increased wind can act to increase erosion that maybe folks have been seeing over the summer, we expect it to increase this time of year.” Said Madeline Magee.
Businesses along the shore have witnessed Lake Michigan’s impact. In Kewaunee, LaFond’s Fish Market had a 3-year-old dock ripped apart by an early fall storm. Water was crashing up along the back of their building, something not seen since the early 80s.
“It’s the same for everybody near the waterfront. It’s destroying everything we’ve built. It’s destroying homes, buildings, anything on the waterfront. The shoreline itself, the erosion, if it’s not protected, it’ll never be the same.” Said Andrew LaFond.
In order to get the lake levels back to normal, we need a lot of help from Mother Nature.
“The kind of conditions we want are a fairly warm winter with lots of lake effect snow that’s able to drain the water from the lakes and dump it…And then when you get into the spring and summer, to not have that that snowpack to go back into the great lakes, and then in the summer to have less of these really high precipitation events where we get inches of water in just one overnight period.” Said Phil Kurimski.
