Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumLake Superior Water Temps 10-12F Above 30 Year Avg.; Highest On Record For July
Looking to escape to the beach this summer? Well, before you book that trip to Cape Cod or the Outer Banks of North Carolina, you might want to consider an unorthodox option the shores of Lake Superior. The lake, which is the northernmost, coldest, and deepest of the five Great Lakes, is the warmest it has been at this time of year in at least a century, thanks to the mild winter, warm spring, and hot, dry summer.
OK, so the lakes average water temperature is still a bracing 68 degrees, but it's considered downright tropical for the region. As the above chart shows, based on the 30-year average, the lakes average water temperature should be in the mid-50s. But thanks to scant lake ice cover this past winter, along with a rare March heat wave and warmer-than-average weather since then, the lake began warming earlier than normal, and that warming has kept right on going. Wintertime ice cover on the Great Lakes was the lowest observed since such records began in 1980.
Its pretty safe to say that what were seeing here is the warmest that weve seen in Lake Superior in a century, said Jay Austin, a professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, who has researched the lakes water temperatures back to the beginning of the 20th century.
The lake's record temperatures are yet another consequence of the record heat so far in 2012. The contiguous U.S. had its warmest January-to-June period since records began in the late 19th century. Manmade global warming will likely result in more years with very warm water temperatures, which could have significant adverse consequences for marine life. In a rare benefit from the ongoing drought, this summer has been so dry that the warm water temperatures are not resulting in major harmful algal blooms, such as one that occurred on Lake Erie last year.
EDIT
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/great-lakes-water-temperatures-at-record-levels/
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... and the stench of rotting fish (from die-offs) making all those fancy shorefront properties very unpleasant.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)My neighbor came back from Lake Huron--she's says it's down a FOOT, and you have to walk forever to get into water deep enough to get wet.
OnlinePoker
(5,719 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)My source said down a foot since June...so the wet winter didn't add up to much....
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)I'm not surprised, though. Here in Fargo it's been averaging around 90F for the past month. The normal average high during the hottest part of the summer is 80F.