You won’t believe the gallons of water added during this flooding
Rapidly melting snowpack in Northern Michigan and days of heavy rain across the state created flood problems on both peninsulas. So how is all this rain and snowmelt affecting our Great Lakes?
Based on the main water level indicator in Lake Huron, we can make an estimate of how much water has recently spilled into Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Remember, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron have the same water level because the lakes in the Strait of Mackinac region are connected by free-flowing water.
There is a “main water level indicator” at Harbor Beach on Lake Huron in the Thumb region of Michigan. The main indicator is a water level indicator that has been used for decades.
Here is the water level indicator for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron for March 15.
Lake Michigan and Lake Huron water level
This is just a surprising prediction, because the water is agitated with the wind. I can tell you that southwest winds have been blowing at Harbor Beach lately, which means the lake level there is actually lower than on the east side of Lake Huron.
From March 17th to yesterday, April 15th, I would call that a 17-inch increase in the water level in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gives me a figure of 800 billion gallons for every inch of water in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
That means 17 inches times 800 billion gallons last month equals 13.6 trillion gallons of water.
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That’s a lot of water, and the excess water is still flowing into Lakes Michigan and Huron.
13.6 trillion gallons of water would cover all of Michigan with 14 inches of water. This amount of water would cover the entire lower 48 states with a quarter inch of water. That doesn’t seem like a lot of water, but we’re talking about every inch of our country.
Now let’s put the new amount of water in Lakes Michigan and Huron into perspective of how much fresh drinking water this will be for the world.
8 billion people in the world drink approximately 5 billion gallons of water every day. The 13.6 trillion gallons of new water will provide the world with drinking water for 2,720 days, or approximately seven and a half years.
That’s a lot of fresh water.
Stay up to date on current flood conditions in Michigan. MLive.com/weather.
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