In January, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron hit their lowest-ever recorded levels for the month. Years of drought-like conditions coupled with back-to-back winter/spring seasons producing little precipitation prompted harbor masters and marina owners to worry about boats running aground in shallow waters and the maritime economy taking another hit.
Mother Nature changed that, reports Jim Lynch in the Detroit News. Harbors and marinas around the state enjoyed a better than expected seasonal rise in the lakes during spring and early summer that cleared the way for better boating conditions and averted the crisis some expected.
"The boost comes courtesy of the rain and snowfall that accumulated in the first months of 2013.
“We’ve seen a much greater seasonal rise than we did a year ago,” said Keith Kompoltowicz, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ chief of watershed hydrology. “We had more snow build up throughout the Great Lakes Basin, particularly in the northern region. And then we had an unbelievably wet spring.”
"Lake Superior typically experiences a seasonal rise of a foot, but this year the number was closer to 20 inches. Likewise, lakes Michigan and Huron normally have an 11-inch increase, but the wet weather drove that figure to about 20 inches.
"While lakes St. Clair and Erie last year experienced almost no seasonal rise at all, both this year had an increase of almost 2 feet.
