How "great" are The Great Lakes?

Craigerrr

Craigerrr

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To move a conversation that started in another thread where it belongs.
Just how "great" are The Great Lakes?
Here is a little perspective.
This is a map of all 5 of the great lakes.
Screenshot_20210418-191522_Maps.jpg

You can see that lake Michigan isn't as big as the state of Florida, but it also isn't a lot smaller.
Here is a little perspective on the size of Lake Huron, not the largest.
Driving distance around the lake. To get from Sarnia (near Detroit) to Saul Ste. Marie. It is a much shorter drive to go through the USA at 5+ hours, 9+ hours to go the other way. Let's just call it 15 hours round trip to drive around this lake.
Screenshot_20210418-191042_Maps.jpg
 
If you see them in person, they are truly Great.
 
Fact:
My hometown of Buffalo NY is the only major metro area in the North Eastern US where you can watch the sunset with an "oceanic" view behind it.
Where I am now in Rochester if you drive up to the lakeshore on a clear day and look real carefully (almost have to squint) you can just kinda make out the CN tower in Toronto on the other shore.
 
The Great Lakes are truly awesome. I live about exactly 1 mile from Lake Michigan. We walk out there a few times a week. I love that the lake keeps us cool in the summer, and sometimes a little warmer in the winter as well, like a great buffer. Swimming is fun in July and August. I don't always love the higher winds, or the fishy smell when the wind blows from certain directions. But it definitely makes for some great sunrises, moonrises, and photo opportunities in general. Overall, yeah, I love the Great Lakes.
 
As climate change worries and evidence rise, I have come to realize that one of the blessings of living on any of the Great Lakes is that it gives you some insurance against water shortages in the future.

The Great Lakes are protected by the Great Lakes Compact:
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact is an agreement between eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces to regulate diversion of water from the Great Lakes basin. The goal is to provide protection and sustainable use of the Great Lakes for future generations.
​
 
I live between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior- about 1.5 hours drive to either one. My husband grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan (quite literally- they had a motel there). I've always been into water- beaches in Florida along with rivers and marshes, lakes and streams in the UP, and we spend most of our time at or in the water.
 
I miss them. Spent 30 years in Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit and Saginaw. But they have snow. Visits from May to October are plenty.
 
I've flown over them a couple times, you can't see shore in any direction which is pretty damned big.
 
There was a shipwreck on Lake Superior in 1975, a large American freighter (The Edmund Fitzgerald) was heading for Cleveland via Lakes Superior, Huron, and Erie. It was carrying 26,000 tons of iron ore pellets. The ship went down in Whitefish Bay on it's way to the locks at Sault Ste. Marie. This tragedy was immortalized in a ballad by Gordon Lightfoot "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". One of the lyrics states "the lake it is said, never gives up her dead". This is because the lake is so deep, and large that the water temperature in the depths never really changes. The temperature below 110 fathoms (660ft / 200m) is an almost constant 39°F (4°C). Because of this bodies sink, stay sunk, and pretty much stay intact as there is no bacteria. They are practically frozen in time.

upload_2021-4-20_14-55-8.png

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You know, as soon as I saw this thread, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the first thing I thought of. Big enough to swallow a freighter that anyone would consider huge.
 
Craigerrr said:
There was a shipwreck on Lake Superior in 1975, a large American freighter (The Edmund Fitzgerald) was heading for Cleveland via Lakes Superior, Huron, and Erie. It was carrying 26,000 tons of iron ore pellets. The ship went down in Whitefish Bay on it's way to the locks at Sault Ste. Marie. This tragedy was immortalized in a ballad by Gordon Lightfoot "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". One of the lyrics states "the lake it is said, never gives up her dead". This is because the lake is so deep, and large that the water temperature in the depths never really changes. The temperature below 110 fathoms (660ft / 200m) is an almost constant 39°F (4°C). Because of this bodies sink, stay sunk, and pretty much stay intact as there is no bacteria. They are practically frozen in time.

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There are countless wrecks in the great lakes, many of which are too deep to even dive. Lake Erie is a favorite of divers because it's by far the shallowest. It's maximum depth of 210' is less than the average depth of Lake Ontario at 285'. My uncle who used to do quite a bit of scuba ironically bought a cottage on Ontario that they eventually made their primary residence largely because the Ontario lakeshore in the area is much quieter than the Erie lakeshore. This is likely because there are relatively few sand beaches on Ontario and they tend to be narrow (especially the last few years with water levels high). The Erie lakeshore is also closer to the City of Buffalo and most of the major suburbs. The Niagara river actually travels 36 miles (I didn't even think it was that long) from where it starts near the Erie Canal Harbor in downtown Buffalo to where it flows into Ontario where Old Fort Niagara is in Youngstown NY. The Fort is actually a cool place to check out. Served under three different nations flags, was captured twice over the span of 3 wars, both times by the British and you can actually see the Toronto skyline roughly 27 miles away across the water.
toronto-from-fort-niagara-michael-allen.jpg
 
sbaclimber said:
3 words....."lake", "effect", "snow"....Steve knows what I am talking about ;)
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Cold arctic air moving over relatively warm lake water means more snow than some of you will see in an entire lifetime, but it comes in one snowfall. Like enough that we're often able to express the amount in feet and not inches. It's funny because everyone thinks Buffalo is super cold but the lake effect keeps the summer and winter temps more moderate. We just get a ton of snow. We actually tend to get less snow if it's a colder winter because the lakes may actually fully freeze over. Like it's crazy cause Minneapolis averages around 10 degrees F colder from December to February and has about half our average snowfall. All in all though I'll take the snow over hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis and whatever other natural phenomena much of the rest of the world deal with.
 
I used to take people SCUBA diving on the shipwrecks in Isle Royale National Park in Northern Lake Superior. Here's one of the boats that we had. It was fun having the crew from National Geographic around for several summers.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/wreck-dive-lake-superior

I was filling in one fall piloting a passenger ferry boat and ended up taking 2 hours to turn around after we got out into the full force of a SW storm. It was like this photo a friend of mine took.

LakeSuperiorWave.jpg
 
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I recall a photo of snow in Buffalo so deep, it was taller than the (truck-mounted) snowthrower, maybe 15 feet? And that was noted as "not unusual".

New Jersey, where I lived most of my life, got snow. I'm a fan. I can say that Georgia has its flaws, but winter weather is not one of them.
 
Donoroto said:
I recall a photo of snow in Buffalo so deep, it was taller than the (truck-mounted) snowthrower, maybe 15 feet? And that was noted as "not unusual".

New Jersey, where I lived most of my life, got snow. I'm a fan. I can say that Georgia has its flaws, but winter weather is not one of them.
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Not like from a single snow fall but accumulated from plowing and such. Not uncommon for entire rows of large parking lots to be blocked with piled snow. This is no lie I've seen snow piled so high that it takes well into June or July, I want to say even August one time to fully melt away.
 
Not lake effect but thought I'd note that currently we have a rain/snow mix coming down on *checks calendar* April 20th! Far from the latest we've had snow though actually
 
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