Lake Michigan temps are breaking records
Lake Michigan temps are breaking records
Lake Michigans surface temperature has been above average nearly every day this year so far. All five Great Lakes are heating up.
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ
Sep 27, 2024 at 12:14 pm
On a sunny, mid-September afternoon, Olu Demuren took a running start off the concrete ledge just south of Belmont Harbor and lept into Lake Michigan for the first time.
I was preparing myself for cold water, Demuren said. And this immediately felt very nice.
The water along Chicagos lakeshore averaged an unseasonable 71 degrees that day. The weather was picturesque too: clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-80s. Anneliese Rittberg watched their friends from the concrete ledge and said the weather felt deeply abnormal.
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Lake Michigans surface temperature nearly every day this year has surpassed the running average dating back to 1995, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data. And its not just one Great Lake. All five are heating up. The massive bodies of water, which provide drinking water to more than 30 million people, are among the fastest-warming lakes worldwide, according to the federal governments Fifth National Climate Assessment.
Its a trend that doesnt show any sign of slowing. As heat trapping-greenhouse gasses continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, the Great Lakes region is projected to grow warmer and wetter in the years and decades to come. Over a fifth of the worlds supply of non-frozen freshwater flows through the five connected Great Lakes, forming the Earths largest freshwater ecosystem. .................(more)
https://www.metrotimes.com/news/lake-michigan-temps-are-breaking-records-37463195