Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Lake Superior water levels were from nine to 10 inches above normal at the end of March and two inches higher than last March.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the levels of all of the Great Lakes were well above normal at the end of the month.
Lake Superior was at 601.96 feet above sea level on March 31, compared to the long-term daily mean of 601.15 feet.
During the month, the lake rose about five inches, according to Army Corps statistics.
Kevin Crupi, of the National Weather Service office in Marquette, said Great Lakes water levels began to rise in March because of early snow melt and a good proportion of monthly precipitation that fell as rain.
“The rise in Lakes Michigan and Huron was greater due to the earlier snow melt that influenced rivers that flowed into these lakes,” Crupi said.
The levels on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron were a whopping 16 to 17 inches above average on March 31 and 9 to 10 inches higher than in March of 2015, according to Crupi, who offers a monthly weather report covering Upper Peninsula weather stations.
More statistics on Great Lakes water levels are available at http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/missions/greatlakesinformation.
