Reduced amounts of rain and snow in the Great Lakes Basin are causing water level drops in Lakes Huron and Michigan not seen in decades, specialists say.
Both lakes were 28 inches below normal levels for November, Tom Greenwood reports in The Detroit News.
That's their lowest point in nearly half a century, and worse news is forecast. All-time lows, not just monthly ones, are expected early next year.
"It's looking like new record lows will be set in January and February on those lakes," Keith Kompolotowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the corps, said of Huron and Michigan.
"This is the first time we've gone out of our low range for Huron/Michigan, which we consider to be one lake because they're joined."
All five Great Lakes are experiencing below-normal levels. Their decline, Greenwood notes, can have a huge impact on Michigan tourism, cargo shipping, recreational boating and shoreline property values.
Water loss has shortened the recreational boating season and forced the shipping industry to reduce the amount of tonnage vessels can carry. . . .
Lake Superior was 14 inches below normal in November, while Lakes Erie and Ontario were down 5 and 10 inches, respectively.
Lake St. Clair was 12 inches below average.
In November, The Great Lakes Basin got just 39 percent of its average precipitation for that month.
Previous record low levels coincided with the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s and a severe drought in 1964, Greenwood notes ominously.
