Water levels have sharply declined from record highs a few years ago to below-average conditions as of mid-November.
Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron were well below average. Huron and Michigan, which maintain the same water levels, were 30 centimetres below the long-term average for the month. Lake Superior had dipped 10 cm below average, while Lakes Erie and Ontario were four cm below during that period.
Fall is when the lakes are in their seasonal decline. Frank Seglenieks, a water resources engineer with the National Hydrological Service of Environment and Climate Change Canada, explained different weather systems are responsible for the discrepancy. A drought in the American midwest is impacting the upper lakes. Weather patterns in the lower lakes are more influenced by the Gulf of Mexico. Seglenieks didn’t characterize the low levels as out of the ordinary. Although the Great Lakes levels are the lowest since 2013, he noted that over the past 100 years levels have been lower.
“It’s not like they are historically low or anything,” he said. The forecast for the next six months is for Superior, Michigan, and Huron to stay below average. Levels on Erie and Ontario are forecast to be slightly above average to slightly below, dependent on precipitation levels in the basin.
