Wind can whip up a wicked seiche on the lake

[News]

Seiches are initiated by some outside force like an earthquake or more often a strong wind. Lake Erie is quite shallow and lined up southwest to northeast with the prevailing wind direction, so it is prone to wind-driven seiches. But these waves don't always fit the general idea of them as oscillatory.

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[Fishwhisperer]

Had what I believe to be a seiches in South Haven Sunday afternoon. With all of the rain we've had, the river was flowing allot faster than normal. During the time that we were trying to get the boat on the trailer, the current switched directions. The water was flowing up stream almost as fast as it had been flowing out. This all was happening when that front was coming in.

[2UNREEL]

My family has boated out of South Haven for over 25 years and I have first hand witnessed it seiche well over 3 ft or better before in a matter of minuites. We have had to chop dock lines on boats to keep them from getting swamped. It is an amazing event.