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The lakes hit their lowest ice cover in over 50 years last month, with experts warning that toxic algal blooms and lower fish stocks could follow.Biologists have been keeping tabs on a remote Lake Superior island's fragile wolf population every winter since 1958. But they had to cut this season's planned seven-week survey short after just a fortnight. The ski plane the Michigan Tech University researchers study the wolves from uses the frozen lake as a landing strip because there's nowhere to touch down on the island. But this weirdly warm winter left the Great Lakes nearly devoid of ice....

The Midwest and the Great Lakes regions will have some of the hottest housing markets in the U.S. this year, according to Zillow. The real estate marketplace predicted Buffalo, N.Y., to be the “nation’s hottest housing market in 2024,” with Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; and Providence, R.I., rounding out the top five. “These should stand out as strong in a housing market still buffeted by low inventory and relatively high mortgage rates and prices,” Zillow added in its report released last week. Other cities included in Zillow’s top 10 projected hottest housing markets for 2024 include Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland,...

They’re hungry, hungry mollusks. Thousands of historic shipwrecks sunk in the American Great Lakes are at risk of being lost forever thanks to invasive, wood-destroying mussels. The lakes are home to an estimated 6,000 shipwrecks, with some dating back to the 17th century, according to estimates from the University of Buffalo. The Quagga mussel, originally native to the waters of Russia and Ukraine, is believed to have arrived in the Great Lakes in 1989 — possibly as a result of ballast dumps from transoceanic freighters traversing the lakes. The population of Quagga mussels has exploded in the waters of the...

AP, so auto-excerpted.

The publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 sent shock waves through state agencies. The following year, in 1963, the Arkansas branch of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (which later became the US Fish and Wildlife Service) imported grass carp as an organic treatment for catfish ponds. Carp, with their voracious appetites for plankton, were a chemical-free filter. When the approach proved successful, additional species — black, silver, and bighead carp — were brought from Vietnam and Malaysia, and later from China and Russia as well. Without differentiating among the species, agencies like the US Department of...

The Earth is trembling underneath Lake Erie. Nine weak, shallow earthquakes have already struck central Lake Erie in the first weeks of 2022, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which, alongside the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), tracks seismic activity in the region. The quake epicenters are clustered about two miles offshore of Lake County east of Cleveland. They range from 1.3 to 3.0 in magnitude and some are being felt locally on shore. Quake depths range from 2.1 to 7.4 kilometers under the surface. The most recent quake was a 2.4 magnitude on Feb. 4. Ohio DNR seismologist...

Just a quick discussion. I've done a lot of scuba diving in the Great Lakes (mostly Huron, some in Superior). Most don't realized it's rich underwater history of many shipwrecks, many very well preserved due to the cold fresh water instead of salt. Before cars and roadways were abundant, people traveled by ship quite often. However there were quite a few large storms in the early 1900's that sent a number of ships to watery graves, some well past the 130' limit most advanced recreational divers would try for. Anyone know where there's a good sub manufacturer that could explore...

Confronted by an army of tiny, slanted pillars of frozen sand, carved by the harsh winds on the shores of Lake Michigan, nature photographer Joshua Nowicki knew he had spotted something extraordinary. The marketing photographer, who snaps landscapes for a living, heads down to the lake almost every night in search of opportunity. This particular December evening in 2021, Nowicki stopped by Tiscornia Park Beach in St. Joseph to photograph spectacular ice starting to accumulate on the lighthouse pier, but he found something far stranger. “Waiting for sunset, I was walking along the beach and happened upon them,” Nowicki told...

According to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, 34 drownings were reported on the Great Lakes on Sunday, a 36% increase from last year, when 25 people drowned in the Great Lakes on the Fourth of July.

Hazardous Weather Outlook Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Detroit/Pontiac MI 507 AM EDT Sun Jun 20 2021 MIZ047>049-053>055-060>063-068>070-075-076-082-083-210930- Midland-Bay-Huron-Saginaw-Tuscola-Sanilac-Shiawassee-Genesee-Lapeer- St. Clair-Livingston-Oakland-Macomb-Washtenaw-Wayne-Lenawee-Monroe- 507 AM EDT Sun Jun 20 2021 This hazardous weather outlook is for southeast Michigan. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight Severe thunderstorms are likely across all of southeast Michigan tonight mainly after 8 PM. There is a marginal risk in the Tri Cities and northern Thumb, a slight risk across the I-69 corridor, and an enhanced risk mainly from the M-59 corridor south through metro Detroit to the Ohio border. There is a chance of tornadoes and large hail...

When a major city such as Toronto experiences above average precipitation during a season, it doesn't necessarily mean water levels in a surrounding lake will also be higher than usual. However, when we look at the Great Lakes basin as a whole, this will have more of an effect on lake levels. Case in point is Lake Ontario. While Toronto received a slightly above normal snowfall amount this winter, with below normal rainfall, the entire basin saw below average precipitation. This helped to keep water levels at bay, especially compared to prior years. In fact, Lake Ontario is forecast to...

Down, down, down. In three minutes, the skip drops nearly 1,700 feet below Cleveland. Then the giant metal door swings open, and you’re deposited in an other-world, with walls, ceiling and floor made of salt. Dirty brown salt at the Cargill mine’s entrance, where the rock has absorbed diesel fumes and dust for more than 60 years. Pristine white, with glimmering flecks, at the mine’s far reaches, 3 miles north, under Lake Erie. “I look out at the water, and it’s like, man, we’re under that!” said Cargill employee Cachet Hilton, 45. Every day, the 5-mile wide mine gets a...

LANSING, MI -- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is shutting down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, citing multiple violations by the company of the 1953 easement with the state, along with a duty to protect the Great Lakes. Enbridge now has until May 2021 to stop the flow of oil and natural gas through the Great Lakes, according to a statement from Whitmer. “Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans...

It was forty-five years ago tonight that the Edmund Fitzgerald, the largest ship plying the Great Lakes, sank and took 29 good men to the bottom of Lake Superior."The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot. With photos of the vessel and her crew.

232 waterspouts/funnels have been confirmed over the Great Lakes from September 28 to October 4, 2020, in the second world record waterspout outbreak of the year, according to the International Center for Waterspout Research (ICWR). From August 16 to 19, 2020, a short-lived waterspout outbreak produced 88 funnels, setting a new world record waterspout outbreak -- the first of the year. Both outbreaks were a result of Canadian cold air sweeping over the region, which made surface air prone to rise. "There were an average of 33 per day," said ICWR director Wade Szilagyi, also a meteorologist at Environment Canada....

Though the past winter was the hottest on record, it was chilly enough on the East Coast to send seasonal sheets of ice creeping across the Great Lakes. Now that that ice has cleared with spring, Lake Michigan is clear enough that shipwrecks lying on the lake bottom can be seen from the air. The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Traverse City noted the crystal clear water conditions and the lost ships during a routine patrol. Last week, they posted a handful of pictures to their Facebook page. The images come from the area near Sleeping Bear Point known...

Each spring on Lake Michigan, if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to see shipwrecks due to the incredibly clear springtime waters. Every winter, ice forms on the Great Lakes. That ice is often thick enough that the people who live on their shores can not only go ice fishing, but even ride snow mobiles across their surfaces. At the coming of spring, the ice melts, leaving the waters of some of the lakes especially clear for a while until warmer weather creates algae blooms and other events that reduce the water’s clarity. In the early spring, the waters of Lake...

“What we are seeing in global warming is the evaporation of our Great Lakes.” That was Illinois Senator Dick Durbin in 2013 when Lake Michigan was at a record low. You can find plenty of claims to the same effect from the time. Nobel Prize winner Al Gore chimed in around then, too, saying climate change was driving Great Lakes levels down by causing evaporation. But that was then and this is now. What’s causing today’s record high levels? Climate change, naturally. So now, citing “catastrophic lakefront erosion” from high water, Chicago just declared a climate emergency. It’s radical, and...

Peter Brown, a professor in Western University’s physics and astronomy department, tweeted a series of photos of the spectacle. He dubbed it the Kintail fireball, for the spot near the Canadian shoreline of Lake Huron where it was believed to have crossed over before going into the water. On a map, Kintail is directly across the lake from Michigan’s Thumb. “Kintail fireball orbit from last night place origins firmly from the asteroid belt. The initial mass was somewhere between a few to ten kilograms - softball sized. Not quite as bright as the full moon," Brown posted on Twitter. Fireballs...

The Naval Station Great Lakes has gone on lock down on Friday morning as authorities warn of a 'gate runner.' The station, located in a North Chicago suburb, shared a short message on their Facebook telling people to 'hide' or 'fight.'