DOOR COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – High Great Lakes water levels are here and they are expected to remain high as the season progresses.
High waves crash the shoreline near Brussels in Door County. When the winds are from the northwest, people in the area know the spray and surf will soak the land nearby.
“We’re going to get wet this afternoon, that’s for sure,” said Travis Blahnik, BayLake Landscape.
Blahnik tells FOX 11 he and his crew are trying to work through the conditions.
“We’re putting big rock on the shoreline, because what it’s doing now, is it’s washing all the dirt out. So we’re trying to pretty much save people’s shorelines.”
Blahnik says the team has been busy.
“I would say all last fall, we were doing this, and since the beginning of March, we’ve been at it.”
The reason? Experts say rising Great Lakes levels.
“Specifically with Lake Michigan-Huron, this year, Lake Michigan-Huron did not experience much of its seasonal decline, it declined only five to six inches, when typically it would decline about 10-12 inches. So, at that point, we started the year of 2020 much higher than we did last year,” said Deanna Apps, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Physical Scientist.
Apps says record levels followed. She tells FOX 11 the average monthly mean from January, February and March was an all time high, and the lake is more than four feet above its baseline level.
“We’re going to continue to see high water, likely higher than last year. Or pretty definitely higher than last year on Lake Michigan-Huron. And we’re going to see some of those shoreline impacts.”.
Impacts like roadside damage and other erosion on parts of the waters of Green Bay.
“The water’s coming up and up, and it’s going to keep going up. So I think everyone just wants to protect their shorelines as fast as they can,” said Blahnik.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers long-range forecast calls for Great Lakes levels to continue to rise over the next six months.
