Rare Erie Seiche

[Dan]

Crazy Erie effect 1/31/2008
The Great Lakes are known for some crazy weather patterns – glass-like conditions, then 8- to 10-foot rollers a few hours later. Or the "Three Sisters" – a set of three devastating waves in quick succession that were thought to have sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald.

But what happened yesterday was one of the rarest of all Great Lakes phenomena. A powerful cold front blew up the length of Lake Erie from the southwest, with sustained winds of 50 mph and gusts to 70. That created a "seiche" in the eastern end of the lake, which occurs when powerful winds push surface waters toward one end of a waterbody.

The result was a rapid 8-foot rise in water level within 3 hours at the eastern end of the lake near Buffalo, N.Y., and a resultant 5-foot drop on the western end near Toledo, Ohio. It was the second-highest seiche level ever recorded by the National Weather Service.

Taken off the Bass Fan site

[1javelin]

8 ft. high   Time to pitch the bushes

1Jav

[djkimmel]

I hope no one was in the hot ponds...?

[motocross269]

I saw that happen one time on a much smaller scale on Higgins lake about 6 or 7 years ago....My dads boat was parked off shore at the state park and the storm surge set his boat about 15 Ft form the waters edge up on shore.  21 foot deep V Rinker..It was fun getting back into the water

[Team KaRu]

This is why there are chains on the center of the concrete piers that go out into Lake Michigan on the Chicago lake front... A seiche hit there quite few years ago when I was a kid but I remember my dad telling me about it.. The chains now will help keep the smelt fisherman from getting washed over board.

[Skip Johnson]

I was looking at the water level chart yesterday and seen that and was wishing I could see the water drop, my guess is that bolles harbor went dry and you could have walked to the hot pond I wonder if there was fish flopping on dry land like before a sunami hits
heres a link to the map there was an 8 ft drop 

http://glakesonline.nos.noaa.gov/glin.shtml?station_info=9063085+Toledo,+OH

[Skulley]

My stream into the Hot Pond was probably dried up with a 8ft water drop.  That would be a bummer to be caught in there.  The wind was blowing hard that day right out of the west.

BD