Warmer in the Lake?
After 42 summers of swimming in “the big lake they call Gitchee Gummi” I’ve got to say that this afternoon I experienced what has got to be the warmest temperatures I can remember. I don’t know if this has been covered in the local press, as I don’t read the DNT anymore. I’m wondering if anyone has any specific data and/or similar perceptions.
MPR had a piece running about the lake all day today.
Lake Superior reaches record temp
Haven’t been down there yet this year but may now.
The lake’s too warm. Great for swimming, but perhaps not a good thing overall.
Absolutely! Haven’t lived here very long but went swimming yesterday at Park Point, the first beach. And it was abnormally warm. Not complaining but it didn’t feel like an iceberg was going to float by at any minute and it was nice:)
I did not know about the MPR article, total coincidence. Thanks.
I’ve been swimming a lot over near Cornucopia this year, it’s like friggen bathwater over there.
I went to Park Point Beach 1 yesterday, as well, and it felt like room temperature bath water. It was disgusting. I want my cold lake back. The tourists are going to start realizing it’s a fun place to swim! 🙂
It was like bathwater on Park Point this morning at 6am too. I had some time to kill before work so I grabbed my camera and hit the beach. Now if only there was a way to get rid of the gulls, they kept ruining my shots!
@ Mel, let the tourists have Park Point. Then us regulars will be left undisturbed out on Wisconsin Point. =)
I was on Madeline Island a couple of weeks ago and the water was impossibly divine. I went for run on the beach and encountered a family of geese tending their young so I took a 90 degree turn rather than messing with them and swam and floated among the sailboats for a half hour or so. It was amazing. I was surprised to lift my head and see pines where it felt like there should be palms.
E Coli warning closed our beach on the South Shore yesterday. My daughter just got back from a sailing trip in the Apostles–they have swimmers itch going round out there–I don’t think it’s “normal” for that to happen in the big lake. A friend got swimmer’s itch a few weeks ago when she swam at Brighton Beach–she says she’s been swimming in Lake Superior for 45 years and never had that happen.
The lake’s too warm.
Water’s 68+ degrees (on the surface). Over 20 degrees higher than it should be!
I swam yesterday for 30 minutes. The warmest I ever experienced.
Someone told me the DNT had an article about Lake Superior temps today. Wonder if they mine for stories on PDD?
I’ve been swimming every day this month, rain or shine. I can’t say I miss the nutcrackin’ cold temps, they’ll return soon enough. Probably with the first surfable conditions in September. Enjoy it while it lasts.
The DNT had a story for the same reason MPR did this week – because the lake reached its record temperature, and researchers released the information.
And the DNT had a story about the warming trend a month ago, so if you did read the paper or the DNT web site you would have known about the unprecedented warmth weeks before.
It’s probably too late at this stage for that bathwater swim. This weekend’s winds mixed the warm surface water pretty effectively with deeper cold water. Offshore, the water temperature dropped from ~22C to ~13C, so the water is going to be back in the 50’s now, with little chance of it warming up significantly before the end of the season.
Another park point afternoon on Saturday. The breeze was on-shore, so I was expecting a rather frigid greeting for my more sensitive parts. What I found instead was very pleasant, calm waters, not too many people, but all very happy, sandbars 100 ft out that made the water ankle deep, and fun, fun fun! First time I saw wildlife other than fowl. Some foreign guy caught an injured painted turtle swimming not far from shore. Speaking of the beach, anyone find a sweet canvas navy and white beach umbrella two years ago? If so, it’s ours and we’d like it back. no questions asked.
I have been in the lake dozens of times this summer and it’s never once been a normal (cold)temperature. I swam with friends at 42nd East the other day and now we all have swimmer’s itch. Stay away from there (and Brighton too, apparently)!