2024-Mar-25
March 24 Water Levels Report
There have been warmer than normal temperatures in the basin in March so far. Lake Michigan-Huron is now one inch above where it was at this time last year.
From a month ago the water levels on Lakes Superior, & Erie are down 1 & 0 inches, respectively, and Lakes Michigan-Huron, St Clair & Ontario are up 1, 2 & 2 inches, respectively. Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron, St Clair, Erie & Ontario are lower by 9, 1, 3, 4 & 6 inches, respectively, than they were at this time last year. Lakes Michigan-Huron, St Clair, Erie & Ontario are 3, 11, 12 & 2 inches, respectively, above their long-term March average and Lake Superior is 1 inch below. All the lakes remain well below their March record highs.
In a month’s time Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron, St. Clair, Erie & Ontario are expected to rise by 1, 2, 3, 3 & 7 inches, respectively.
Outflows from Lake Superior into the St. Mary’s River are expected to be near 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 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 (please note an updated graph was unavailable – this is last weeks):
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 start to drop in January, level off in February and then rise again in March through June to level off in July.
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.
The satellite image below from Mar 23 shows that there is still virtually no ice cover anywhere on the Bay. Ice coverage for the entire Great Lakes basin remains extremely low.
