Winds whip up waves on lake

On a hot, muggy Tuesday afternoon, Eagle Bluff Golf Club groundskeeper Jeff Tenlen was aerating the greens, a process in which dime-sized holes are poked into the surfaces.

It was 77 degrees in Hurley, and the Tuesday Night Men's League was preparing for its last day of play for the season.

Tenlen figured his crew had better get the work done in anticipation of impending Wednesday precipitation.

Well, those holes on the greens more than filled with water Wednesday as from 2 to 3 inches of rain fell on already saturated Gogebic Range.

There's never a good time for such lousy weather, but with numerous street and culvert repair projects under way in Gogebic County, the storm was especially unwelcome.

A power outage was reported along Cloverland Drive at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and the Ironwood Public Safety Department was informed by Xcel Energy that electricity was expected to be restored by 3:30 p.m., but it came on before that in the city.

A downed line apparently caused the outage.

Around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday, a patrolling IPSD officer reported there was already flooding in the construction zone near the Family Dollar store on Cloverland Drive and at the BP station.

Eric Oman, at Little Girl's Point, reported winds gusted to more than 40 mph. At the same time, waves were higher than anyone could remember on Lake Superior at Saxon Harbor.

The winds were so strong that it was difficult for lake-watchers to stand during the height of the storm.

The breakwalls at Saxon Harbor were underwater during the wave action and Oronto Creek again flooded over the access road that leads to the boat landing. The wooden walking docks at the boat landings were also underwater.

The Saxon Harbor recreation vehicle park was filling with water around noon.

All along the lakeshore, seagulls huddled in masses to avoid the brutal waves. They're usually hearty birds, but they couldn't tackle the severe wind gusts.

To top it off, the temperature was in the low 40s, bringing the dreaded "windchill" factor back into play.

The National Weather Service reported many locations in northern Wisconsin received more than 3 inches of rain.

The NWS said gale warnings on the lake would remain in effect through 2 this morning, all the way from Saxon Harbor to the upper entrance of the Portage Canal near Houghton in the Upper Peninsula. Isle Royale National Park was included.

Todd Kluber, of the National Weather Service in Marquette, said 14.8-feet waves were measured around 1 p.m CDT by the station's westernmost buoy in Lake Superior, which is northwest of Ontonagon.

"That's the only buoy in the western part of Lake Superior," Kluber said. "There's another buoy just west of the portage canal in Houghton, and that one saw 13 feet right around the same time, 1 p.m. central time."

Kluber said early afternoon was the high mark for the larger waves. As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, Kluber said the waves had drawn down some but the lake was still choppy.

Sustained winds of 36 knots from the northeast gusted up to 45 knots, with waves reaching 25 feet high.

Michigan Technological University officials in Houghton said the storm caused a 20-degree temperature differential between the surface and the lake bottom.

The NWS listed heavy rain and flash flooding warnings for the Upper and Lower Great Lakes through Wednesday.