WEST MICHIGAN - Just a couple short years ago we had houses falling into Lake Michigan from record high water levels along the lakeshore. Homeowners were shoring up their foundations and in some cases, even physically moving the house back from the lakeshore to prevent damage or catastrophe.
Fast forward to now, July 2022, and Lake Michigan water levels are now significantly down from their high point just two years ago.
We should note that Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are considered one basin, since they're connected through the Straights of Mackinaw. A one inch rise in these lakes means 790 billion gallons of water! So keep this in mind, the basin is down 25 inches from its high in July 2020. That's a whopping 19,750,000,000,000 gallons of water. Or to say it...19 trillion 750 billion gallons! Quite the staggering amount.
The Lake Michigan basin is actually down about eight inches from just one year ago (July 2021). Currently, the basin is about nine inches above its July average, records that have been kept since 1918. July is typically the highest level of Lake Michigan due to winter snowmelt as well as spring/summer rains. February is traditionally the lowest.
The image below this paragraph was taken on the Grand Haven pier in September 2020, at a time when one of the highest Lake Michigan water levels existed. Note the water was literally swamping the pier, and that was without any wave action. We drew the line in the water to show how high the level was (literally even with the top), and you can see most of the end of the pier was actually underwater.
Take a look at the image below, also taken in September 2020. At that time, Grand Haven had lost about 50 to 70 yards of beach due to high water. The good news? With water levels now down more than two feet from that time, much of that beach has been reclaimed. I walked around the rocks below just last week. Two years ago walking around the rocks to get onto the pier would have put you neck deep in water. Now, it's only up to your knees at best. Quite the change!
A portion of Michigan remains in an "ABNORMALLY DRY" situation, so we can certainly use more precipitation. Our immediate outlook for the next month shows below normal precipitation chances, so our lake levels will likely continue to fall. Get the complete West Michigan forecast at www.fox17online.com/weather.
