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Boreal Community Media

Great Lakes Water Levels and News

Oct 30, 2017 10:12AM ● By Editor
This is accumulated rainfall over the past 30 days.  

By Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather WOOD-TV Monday, October 30, 2017

The water levels of the Great Lakes remain high. Lake Superior’s water level is unchanged over the past month, up 7″ in the last year and is now 13″ above the average October level.  Superior is only 3″ below the highest October level ever, which was reached in 1985.  Lake Michigan is also unchanged in the last month.  It’s up 9″ year-to-year and is now 19″ above the October average.  The eastern lakes have had less rain and their levels have gone down.   Lake Erie is down 4″ in the last month.  However, Erie is still 5″ higher than one year ago and 15″ higher than the century October average.  Lake Ontario is down 7″ in the last month, up 11″ in the last year and is now 8″ above the October average.  Lake St. Clair is down 6″ in the last month, up 4″ year-to-year and is 16″ above the century average.

All the rivers that connect the Great Lakes have above average water flow and that will continue to be the case into early winter. The Detroit River at Detroit has a flow of 234,000 cubic feet per second, compared to an average of 192,000 cfs.

Some river flow readings early 10/30 compared to (average flow).  Grand River at Grand Rapids 8,890 cfs (2,000 cfs), Muskegon River at Croton 3,950 cfs (1,510 cfs), Kalamazoo River at Croton 1,820 cfs (700 cfs), Paw Paw River at Riverside 1,550 cfs (369 cfs), Saginaw River at Bay City 4,570 cfs (2,340 cfs), Tahquamenon River near Paradise (in the U.P.) 2,850 cfs 820).

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