The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been tracking water levels on Lake Michigan and the other four Great Lakes since 1920.
Manitowoc’s Harbor Master and City Planner, Paul Braun, tells Seehafer News that the current levels are about 20 inches lower than last year, “but they are 14 inches higher than the average. Overall, the lowest lake levels for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, which are in the same water basin, in 1964, the water levels were 46 inches lower than they are now. Basically, in a nutshell, from all-time low to all-time high, the water levels in the Great Lakes change about five and a half feet.”
With the fluctuation comes various beach conditions including low water levels in 2011, when residents and visitors alike could enjoy hundreds of feet of sand along our shoreline.
“Now, we have a little bit of sand,” he said. “Not as much as back in the low levels, but again, fortunately, the waters have gone down.”
Braun also said, in reference to the Great Lakes, “It’s the nature of the beast. They rise and they fall, and it isn’t something man-made, but rather environmental. It’s linked to precipitation and evaporation.”
