A mild winter and a dryer than average spring is having an impact on water levels in Georgian Bay and Lake Huron.
Normally water levels go up in spring because of rain and the snow melt.
However, according to Chuck Southam of the Centre for Inland water, just the opposite occurred.
He says in March water levels actually went down by about four centimetres rather than going up and in April despite some early rain, water levels are only one cm above where they were at the begriming of the month.
Compared to a year ago Southam says levels in Lake Huron and Georgian Bay are 5 centimetres lower.
He says Lake Huron and Georgian Bay now are about 32 centimetres below their long term average for this time of year and unless we see a significiant amount of rain fall over the next little while there won’t be a seasonal rise in lake levels.
He says this doesn’t bode well for the summer outlook for the upper lakes as we could be looking at water levels that are 40 cm or more lower than the long term average.
Southam says its the same elsewhere in the upper Great Lakes Basin as well.
He says Lake Superior is about 23 cm lower than its long term average for this time year and with lower outflows, Huron and Georgian Bay are not getting as much water from Superior as it would on an average year.
However Southam says people look at these numbers in perspective and realize the fluctuion of water levels on the Great Lakes is a normal occurrence.
He says if they are upset with the current round of low levels, they should look back to conditions in the 1980, when extremely high water levels were causing all sorts of problems with shoreline erosion and property damage.