Bit of a blow on the Great Lakes today...

Stee6043

Stee6043

Well-Known Member
Jun 1, 2015
6,733
West Michigan
Boat Info
1997 Sundancer 400
Engines
7.4L Gassers
I assume we're all tucked away for the winter by now but gale warnings abound!

It looks like two buoys on Lake Huron are already over 7'. Bummer that a lot our usual buoys have been pulled for the season though...

And yes, you can safely assume that I am indeed from the future based on those observations times:
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I skipped on over to the ship tracker and noticed one of the usual boats we see in Grand Haven seems to have changed course recently. Headed to Grand Haven...which it just recently went past. I' assuming it's weather related but really have no idea. I also assume it's not super common for ships of this size to turn completely around :)

This is the Wilfred Sykes
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There was a day last week when the marine forecast for southern Georgian Bay where our cottage is and where we boat,was for gale force winds (35knots plus) and wave heights of 3 to 4 metres (10 to 13 ft). Whatever happens in weather patterns as we swing from fall to winter makes the Great Lakes a nasty place in November. Like clockwork.

I love to sit by the windows at our cottage by the woodstove and watch those storms and waves roll and crash in. Especially now that we have a stone retaining wall between us and the beach.
 
It got a little crazy here yesterday, leftovers from that horrible weather that hit the heartland Friday I guess. Record high temperature, 67* ahead of the front. The seiche reached 8', rising 6' in just 2 hours, 20+ foot waves. The floating docks in Toledo must have all been sitting on the bottom, lol. Hopefully everyone's shrink wrap held up.
This video shows one of our goto restaurants on the lake getting a power wash yesterday.
Heading out to check the oil in the whole house generator, it got a good workout last night.
 
That is some crazy video…

I guess there’s no “outdoor dining” there.
 
I’m going to check the boat and shrink wrap this morning, we didn’t get it quite as bad as Batavia and others out west but we saw 71mph near where the boat is kept (outside)
 
What an amazing video. Interesting to see the cars lined up on the far shore watching the waves, and the cop down there (you can see his flashing light at about :40 into the video).
 
The weather was something else. I was watching the radar in the wee hours. Continuous activity from Texas to Canada. Wind, rain, tornado's, up north on the west side of the lakes we got nailed with snow. My plow truck wouldn't start, things were a mess. Got us plowed out finally yesterday afternoon.

Sure feel for the folks that the tornados hit. Last I heard one may have broken a record by staying on the ground for over 200 miles.
 
Yikes. I was scanning the topic list and I saw this -- thought it said

"Did a bit of blow on the Great Lakes today"

:eek:
 
We had lots of snow last weekend, now been melting most this week. Had -15F a week and a half ago, now been 50F for a day and a half. Wind is howling, getting pretty feisty up on Superior.
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Woody said:
We had lots of snow last weekend, now been melting most this week. Had -15F a week and a half ago, now been 50F for a day and a half. Wind is howling, getting pretty feisty up on Superior.
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I guess I got out of dodge just in time. I was in Sheboygan yesterday for work and flew home in the afternoon.
 
The low is going over Superior right now, the trailing front will be here this evening and it’s 62* here right now ahead of it. Not supposed to be as bad as last weekend though, only gusting to 50. We haven’t had any snow other than a dusting so far. Weird. To this point, we wouldn’t have had to winterize anything. They say that’s suppose to change next week.
 
Forecasting 45 knot gale force on Georgian Bay off our cottage. I would love to be there to watch the waves pound in (now that we have a strong stone wall between us and the beach and surf. The 15ft waves in the bay are not that high when they come in (some shoals off shore knock them down a bit), but they will be 6 to 10s.

Crazy weather this fall. Not complaining about not having to shovel snow though, at least so far. They say its coming later because there is no chance that there will be complete lake freeze over this year. Maybe Superior, but not the lower lakes.

Toronto gets a lot of its winter snow from north winds coming down off the upper lakes including Georgian Bay. When they are frozen over, lake effect snow is much less. When they are open, we get more lake effect snow. Nowhere near what Buffalo and the east end of Erie gets, but similar effect.
 
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63 degrees in Grand Rapids this morning. Insane. Allegedly it'll be in the 30's by the time I leave work. Just another day in Michigan I guess :)
 
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