2023-Feb-13
February 12 Water Levels Report
Lake Michigan-Huron continues to be below the level it was at this time last year – see first graph below.
From a month ago the water levels on Lakes Superior & Michigan-Huron are down 2 & 1 inches, respectively, and Lakes St Clair, Erie & Ontario are up 2, 3 & 4 inches, respectively. Lakes Michigan-Huron, Erie & Ontario are lower by 5, 3 & 6 inches, respectively, and Lakes Superior & St Clair are up 11 & 10 inches, respectively, than they were at this time last year. Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron, St Clair, Erie & Ontario are 7, 4, 13, 12 & 4 inches above, respectively, their long term February average. All the lakes remain well below their February record highs, except for Superior which is only 7 inches below.
In a month’s time Lakes Superior is expected to fall by 2 inches. Lakes Michigan-Huron, St. Clair, Erie & Ontario are expected to rise by 1, 2, 2 & 2 inches, respectively.
Outflows from Lake Superior into the St. Mary’s River, Lake Michigan-Huron’s outflow into the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair’s outflow through the Detroit River, Lake Erie’s outflow through the Niagara River, and Lake Ontario’s outflow through the St. Lawrence River and are all projected to be above average for this month.
This report below shows the most recent month of precipitation and outflows published by Level News:
With regard to the forecast graph below, and the more recently updated first graph in this report, the USACE is predicting that the most likely outcome is that the Lake Michigan-Huron level will continue declining through January, levelling off in February, and then rising through March and into June.
Monthly mean water levels for the previous year and the current year to date are shown as a solid line on the hydrographs. A projection for the next six months is given as a dashed line. This projection is based on the present condition of the lake basin and anticipated future weather. The shaded area shows a range of possible levels over the next six months dependent upon weather variations. Current and projected levels (solid and dashed lines) can be compared with the 1918-2021 average levels (dotted line) and extreme levels (shown as bars with their year of occurrence). The legend below further identifies the information on the hydrographs.
This satellite image from Feb 11 shows that the North Channel is around 80% ice covered, but Georgian Bay only has ice cover along the shorelines, with only minimal amounts of ice forming out in the Bay.
