US & Canada Safety At Risk As Great Lakes Reach Critical High Records

[Economy 52,835]

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news-story/9746353-record-lake-ontario-outflows-saw-economic-loss-in-canada-and-u-s-/

 

Record high water levels in the Great Lakes especially lake Ontario is causing the outflow of water into Ocean going at a record pace causing safety challanges for cargo ships forcing slower speeds and other measures that have cost the industry quite some money

 

Lake Ontario hit record water levels in 2017 at 75.88 metres above sea level but now has hit yet another record at 75.92 metres above sea level. That is 90 cm (over 2.5 feet) higher than its normal levels. That is even higher than the June report in this photo below:

 

 

The irony is that for decades Global Warming and high human water use was causing the water levels to chronically drop. In fact some feared that as a worst case scenario, in the far future as sea levels rise and lake waters kept dropping that one day during high tides salt water could reverse and cause lake Ontario to become salty and it's water undrinkable

 

But the last half a decade or so has seen the exact opposite. More precipitation than evaporation almost every year has cause the Great Lakes to become bloated with water, earlier this year Lake Michigan even rose so high that the edges of Chicago became submerged

[Economy 52,835]

One thing that is also concerning is that water levels are supposed to be lowest in fall after water levels drop in the summer....

 

This summer they hardly fell... And now winter just started and it's at record levels

 

Levels tend to rise from winter to late spring as evaporation is minimal during cold season and in the spring precipitation is highest.

 

This means water levels could go even higher

[Fatigay 21,209]

Could we dig up some new canals, creeks, rivers, near the cities? Bring more water inland rather than keeping it in the lakes?

[Economy 52,835]

5 minutes ago, thierryrreiht said:

Could we dig up some new canals, creeks, rivers, near the cities? Bring more water inland rather than keeping it in the lakes?

The amount of water in these lakes is massive, nearly 20% of earths fresh water I believe (if you exclude ice caps).

 

It would take a huge amount of digging at a rediculous cost of money... Its cheaper to just deal with flooding and slow ships than to try to do that... Not to mention we'd have to dig so much land that it would destroy a lot of habitat

 

Also water levels fluctuate. By the time we finish excavating large enough resevoirs to divert water too the water levels may no longer be required to be diverted

 

Just not the most realistic solution

 

I wonder tho if this is an extreme aberration in a longer term trend of falling water levels from climate change... Or if the trends now are shifting permanently towards rising level

 

Since temperatures changes and precipitation may not change equally at the same pace or even the same after certain thresholds are crossed, a trend like this in theory could completely change in the opposite direction

 

The idea was that global warming was supposed to keep putting pressure on falling water levels but the last several years it's been the exact opposite... Not only did we regain all of the water level drops, but it exceeded that to the point of hitting new record highs

[GoldenPonyboy 2,434]

33 minutes ago, Economy said:

One thing that is also concerning is that water levels are supposed to be lowest in fall after water levels drop in the summer....

 

This summer they hardly fell... And now winter just started and it's at record levels

 

Levels tend to rise from winter to late spring as evaporation is minimal during cold season and in the spring precipitation is highest.

 

This means water levels could go even higher

My family lives by a river and floods in the spring are quite the usual, however we flooded this fall which has never happened to us before

[Economy 52,835]

10 minutes ago, GoldenPonyboy said:

My family lives by a river and floods in the spring are quite the usual, however we flooded this fall which has never happened to us before

Did u see images from Chicago? I saw a bike path that was supposed to be beside lake that was submerged

[LaLuna 12,732]

A couple weeks ago one of the rivers in my town reached unprecedented levels because we got 100 mm of rain in a very short amount of time, there were floodings downtown and it was absolute chaos. And it's not even that big of a river, so I can't even imagine the damage the Great Lakes could cause.

[JustinTrudeau 2,419]

And dumb@sses still claim global warming isn't true cause we still have snow falling 

For years, we have evidence. I'm just mad that people voted for Ford cause there's no way he cares about this.

[Economy 52,835]

4 minutes ago, LaLuna said:

A couple weeks ago one of the rivers in my town reached unprecedented levels because we got 100 mm of rain in a very short amount of time, there were floodings downtown and it was absolute chaos. And it's not even that big of a river, so I can't even imagine the damage the Great Lakes could cause.

Well smaller rivers fill up faster... A single large storm doesn't affect the great lakes to that extent. It's more impacted by cummulate trends over weeks, months and even years

 

But yes when it gets unreasonably high it's a problem for a much larger area... It also takes much longer for the waters to refresh

 

The great lakes from their highest levels inate spring to their lowest levels in mid fall only change like 1-2 metres typically (3-6 feets)... Some rivers can change that much after a single event

 

[GoldenPonyboy 2,434]

1 hour ago, Economy said:

Did u see images from Chicago? I saw a bike path that was supposed to be beside lake that was submerged

It is way not normal for the start of winter

[Economy 52,835]

1 minute ago, GoldenPonyboy said:

It is way not normal for the start of winter

Chicago

 

[Ziggy 14,009]

2 hours ago, Economy said:

Chicago

 

Yo this is a normal windy day haha the bad days are SOMETHING ELSE. The waves are also getting more intense on days that are not even terrible, just slightly acclimate. On a particularly windy day last spring I had a 40 ft wave crash on the shore as I walked by and I had to sprint like Indiana Jones. It was pretty awesome, but I'd never seen anything like it

[Economy 52,835]

3 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Yo this is a normal windy day haha the bad days are SOMETHING ELSE. The waves are also getting more intense on days that are not even terrible, just slightly acclimate. On a particularly windy day last spring I had a 40 ft wave crash on the shore as I walked by and I had to sprint like Indiana Jones. It was pretty awesome, but I'd never seen anything like it

That's insane

 

So do u notice a big difference since the high water levels?

[Ziggy 14,009]

1 minute ago, Economy said:

That's insane

 

So do u notice a big difference since the high water levels?

oh absolutely lol even from like the last 5 or so years. It's actually more annoying than anything else lol I do hear from bikers, though, that they notice it more acutely (given that for them trail conditions matter more; I just go on walks so I don't mind a little water). Today, for instance, I went on a walk and tried to walk under Lake Shore Drive to get back and the entire underpass was flooded. Now granted, it has been rainy the past 2 days, but even on a normal day the water is usually right up to the level of the pass.

[Economy 52,835]

1 minute ago, Ziggy said:

oh absolutely lol even from like the last 5 or so years. It's actually more annoying than anything else lol I do hear from bikers, though, that they notice it more acutely (given that for them trail conditions matter more; I just go on walks so I don't mind a little water). Today, for instance, I went on a walk and tried to walk under Lake Shore Drive to get back and the entire underpass was flooded. Now granted, it has been rainy the past 2 days, but even on a normal day the water is usually right up to the level of the pass.

Lake Ontario is roughly higher than normal by the same amount as Lake Michigan but fortunately Toronto's Lake Shore is a little higher up so we haven't actually had any flooding per say that I'm aware

 

But whenever I drive to Toronto I notice that the Toronto beaches are almost entirely gone... There's literally like only 3 or 4 feet of sand now cause the water is up so high, u can even lie down

 

Toronto beaches were always sh*t anyway tho. Everyone commutes 1.5 to 2h cuz those are the nearest good beaches