Lake Michigan water level nears average after volatile stretch

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — A dry pattern has Lake Michigan water levels declining, continuing the lake’s pattern of settling out after record highs five years ago.

Water levels on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron — tracked as a single lake — have dropped 5 inches since the same time last month, the latest report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows.

“Overall, with the dry conditions we have seen recently, Michigan-Huron’s water levels are near average,” Army Corps physical scientist Deanna Fielder said.

That short-term drop is part of the seasonal ebb and flow of the Great Lakes.

“On any given year lake Michigan, Lakes Michigan-Huron will see that spring rise as snow melts and more rain in the spring, and then as we go into the fall when it gets a lot dryer and even in winter when we have snowpack, the water level decreases about 12 inches,” NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory spokesperson Jennifer Day said.

The levels now are about 5 inches lower than this time last year, continuing a five-year trend of lows in October lower than the year before.

2020 saw water levels at 20-year highs , causing big erosion problems along the lakeshore.

“A lot of people remember the record-high levels from 2020 on Michigan-Huron, and that was propelled largely by really wet conditions in precipitation even in the years prior,” Fielder said.

The lakes gave seen dramatic water level changes since the mid-2010s.

“These extreme changes that we have seen between a record low in the late ’90s and 2000s and that really high level that followed so soon after, that’s where we really aren’t understanding,” Day said.

But for now, the volatile trend appears to be settling down.

“Right now, our six-month forecast has Lake Michigan-Huron staying near average for six months,” Fielder said.

Experts added that the water levels are an average, and that local weather and other factors may affect what you see at your dock, beach or favorite fishing spot.

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