2025-Jan-27
January 26 Water Levels Report
Lake Michigan-Huron is 9 inches below its level at this time last year.
From a month ago the water levels on Lakes Superior & Michigan-Huron are down 3 & 1 inches, Lakes St. Clair, Ontario and Erie are up 4, 1 & 2 inches, respectively. Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron, St. Clair, Erie & Ontario are lower by 6, 9, 13, 6 & 6 inches, respectively, than they were at this time last year. Lakes St. Clair & Erie are 8 & 5 inches above their long-term January averages, and Lakes Superior, Lake Michigan-Huron & Ontario are all 7, 6 & 4 inches below their long-term January averages. All the lakes remain well below their January record highs.
In a month, Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron & St. Clair are expected to fall by 2, 1 & 3 inches, respectively. Lakes Erie & Lake Ontario are expected to rise by 1 & 2 inches, respectively.
Outflows from Lake Superior into the St. Mary’s River is expected to be below average, whereas 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 are expected to be slightly 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 to drop in January and level off in February.
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 1918-2023 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.
There is no clear satellite imagery for ice coverage this week, but The Weather Network is reporting that the recent cold snap has dramatically increased the amount of surface ice across the Great Lakes region and NOAA reported that about 23.2 percent of the Great Lakes were covered by ice as of Thursday, January 23.