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Boreal Community Media

70 mph gusts, 25 foot waves to buffet Upper Peninsula

Oct 24, 2017 07:00AM ● By Editor

MARQUETTE, MI - A rapidly deepening storm system will produce very rough conditions across the Upper Peninsula by Tuesday. Waves as high as 25 feet  may hit the south-central Lake Superior shoreline.

This storm will be one of the classic late October and November wind makers that brew over Lake Superior.

Northwest winds gusting to almost 70 mph will build tall waves as they move from northwest to southeast across Lake Superior. A large section of Upper Peninsula shoreline could have erosion, from the base of the Keweenaw Peninsula to Grand Marais, Michigan.

A powerful wind making storm has a very low air pressure reading at the center of the storm. The black lines on the weather map show how quickly the air pressure changes over a short distance. It's the air pressure change that produces high winds. The strongest wind will be focused where the pressure lines are closest together over the central and western part of Lake Superior.

The wind gust forecast for Tuesday, Oct. 24 shows the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula at Copper Harbor getting the strongest wind gusts. Much of the western and central shoreline of the U.P. could have wind gusts out of the north at over 60 mph.

This wind situation could happen on the extreme end in the next month. The conditions are in place for high-end wind events. The Great Lakes are quite warm for this time of year. The cold pocket of air building up in Canada is a late December-type cold. If a strong storm tracks across Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, and pulls a majority of the Canadian cold air down over the warm Great Lakes, we will have quite a wind storm.


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