Water levels below average in all Great Lakes, except Erie, says Environment Canada

Jonathan Migneault · CBC News

· Posted: May 15, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

All of the Great Lakes, but for Lake Erie, are beneath their mean h2o levels for this clip of twelvemonth owed to a comparatively adust fall, according to measurements from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Water levels for Lake Superior and Lake Ontario are astatine their lowest since 2013, and Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are astatine their lowest level since 2014, according to a caller study from Environment Canada. 

Frank Senglenieks, a h2o resources technologist with Environment Canada who co-authored the report, said h2o levels for each of the large lakes tin fluctuate by arsenic overmuch arsenic 2 metres from 1 play to the next.

He said h2o levels for the Great Lakes person been higher than mean for the past 10 years, truthful the alteration this twelvemonth could travel arsenic a daze to radical who person spot adjacent the lakes oregon usage them recreationally. 

"That stone that you haven't had to deliberation astir for 10 years, well, present it's really going to beryllium a small spot person to the surface," helium said.

Senglenieks said fluctuations successful h2o levels for the Great Lakes are portion of a earthy cycle, but those are expected to summation due to the fact that of clime change.

"What we spot successful our clime alteration probe for h2o levels is much extreme, truthful adjacent higher highs, but adjacent little lows," helium said.

"So adjacent wherever I said the scope was astir 2 metres for each lake. So, you know, adhd 30 oregon 40 centimetres connected either broadside of that."

He added that it would instrumentality higher than mean rainfall this summertime for astir of the Great Lakes to instrumentality to mean h2o levels.

Great Lakes information from the U.S.

CBC News contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)— the national bureau successful the United States liable for upwind forecasting and tracking atmospheric and oceanic conditions, including the wellness of the Great Lakes— for its information connected h2o levels.

A spokesperson responded that NOAA was undergoing restructuring and did not person anyone disposable to supply comment.

The bureau has faced important cuts nether U.S. President Donald Trump. By March, astir 1,300 NOAA unit members had resigned oregon had been laid off.

Seglenieks said the changes are concerning from the Canadian broadside of the lakes.

"We've got a large narration with our U.S. counterparts for sure," helium said.

"They are going done immoderate things, evidently backing and antithetic different issues."

Seglenieks said that truthful far, however, Environment Canada has continued to person h2o level information from American counterparts.

"We person immoderate contingency plans successful lawsuit that information root stops oregon is interrupted," helium said.