Why is Green Bay so low?

[Walleye Express]

I know we have been having a lot of south wind, but how can Green Bay drop over a foot so fast? Is this normal for this time of year? It just seems unusually low considering we actually had average to above average precip for October.

Scott P.

Scott.

Historically, the Great Lakes slowly/continually rise during the course of the summer and peak in mid to late June, as the local and Canadian winter snow/ice melt off and works its way slowly through the whole system towards Erie, Niagara Falls, Lake Ontario and finally the Atlantic ocean. The only true pinch point is the St. Claire River and is one of the biggest corks in this Great Lakes bottle. And dredging it and dynamiting it during spring ice jams (IMV) is just another of our mistakes. The waters then continually decline through the fall and winter months of that same remaining year until spring run-off starts the process over again the next year, with evaporation and other water using dynamics only adding to the problem. Now, this is what it does over here on Lake Huron. But we are the recipients of 2 of the Great Lakes Waters as the waters work their way through this system I just described. Lake Michigan might (and probably does) receive the most negative impact of this whole scenario, because it continually looses water at both it's top and bottom ends virtually all year long. When and if the rainy seasons fail or fall short over on the West side of Michigan of the West side of the Lake where most of you guys live, I'm thinking your low water problems are double what ours are on Lake Huron. And brother that aint good this year either. Capt. Dan.

[Jenny Ann]

If you are talking about Green Bay, WI it happens every year in fall. All it takes is a good south blow and then you get it.

[Walleye Express]

They're talking about this subject on a few other boards and it seems this year is the worse they've ever seen, some old timers saying in 40 years.