Great Lakes Storms Photo Gallery

Seiche and Storm Surge Generated Low Water Levels

Lake Erie: September-October 2001

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Dear Colleagues:

This has been a most unusual week for the Great Lakes Education Program. We had 7 classes scheduled to participate from our Lake Erie Metropark marina base during the period Monday through Thursday, yet we took out NONE. Why? We experienced record intraday low water for Lake Erie due to a westerly gale that began last Sunday and lasted through early Wednesday.

The chart below shows the period Sunday through Thursday for this week, and tells the story of how strong west winds (our gale) drive the water toward Buffalo, how a seiche is formed, and how these factors over time can send lake levels to record lows.

Tabular data available from http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/

Note that as the gale began on Sunday, the overall water level declines. Also note that a seiche with a wave period of approximately 12 hours forms, with increasing amplitudes, until we reach the lowest low around noon on Wednesday, at a level about one foot below the September record low on an intraday basis. The gale abated Wednesday, we had a large rebound that evening, and the level has sought equilibrium since that time.

Photo of channel from Lake Erie Metropark marina to Lake Erie

Another Photo of the channel from Lake Erie Metropark marina to Lake Erie

The pictures above show the channel leading from the Lake Erie Metropark marina to Lake Erie (trust me, Lake Erie is out there - somewhere). These were taken around noon on Wednesday, just about the time of the lowest low. All of the land you see is lake bottom, normally covered by a couple of feet of water. Understandable why we could not leave the dock with a boat that drafts 3.5'. For you who are boaters, chart datum for Lake Erie is 569.2, which we fell beneath at least four times this week.

I plan to use this week's experience as an example for future presentations on lake levels, and thought you might like to see how a very interesting and perhaps historic lake level event knocked us off course this week. This is the first time in 11 years of GLEP education that we've had to reschedule more than 2 classes in a season, let alone 7 in one week! Forecasts for next week and following are much more encouraging, however, and you can see from the Fermi graph that we should be fine if levels stabilize around the 570.0 level.

Steve Stewart, MI Sea Grant

October 11, 2001

What's also interesting is that we had something of a duplication this past weekend, where we dipped BELOW the previous example at the Gibraltar gauge. You can also see that the still water level following the latest seiche is lower (expected due to the annual cycle) than that of the earlier one. The projections I saw expected a 3" drop in still water levels for Lake Erie for the month of October.

Steve Graphic of water levels at the Fermi Power Plant fronm 9/24/2001-10/11/2001

Tabular data available from http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/

October 18, 2001

Dear Colleagues:

This week, Lake Erie did it again! Tuesday, we surpassed the record low for Lake Erie for the month of October by over 2.5 feet! The record was about 568.5, set in 1934. [Editor's note - records are set on a monthly, not intraday basis; to 'break' the record, the monthly average for October over the entire Lake Erie basin would have to fall below 568.5 feet]. The low on Tuesday was just below 566.0 at the Fermi Nuclear Plan on Lake Erie.

This low was preceded by a huge 6.5' drop in water levels over a period of approximately 9 hours. This is a classic example of a storm surge, and was a whopper. The gale force west winds blew all the water from the west end of the lake toward Buffalo.

Graphic of water levels at the Fermi Power Plant fronm 10/15/2001-10/18/2001 - data in tabular form available from http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/data_retrieve.shtml?input_code=000111111vgl&station=9063090+Fermi+Power+Plant,+MI

Tabular data available from http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/

As you can see, we have rebounded since the winds have abated, but we again went below the 1934 low on Wednesday, mid-morning. What is mind-boggling is that the Wednesday low was a full TWO FEET above the Tuesday low, and it looked really low on Wednesday! I took a roll of pictures Wednesday and will share when developed.

Steve