I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the fact that Lake Superior and other Great Lakes were nearing record high levels this year. Which was bad, of course–flooding and so on. Was it due to climate change? Perhaps. But just a few years ago–in 2013–the Great Lakes were low. That, too, was bad, and as the headlines linked in my prior post indicate, that definitely was due to climate change.
Now the Washington Post reports: “The Great Lakes are overflowing with record amounts of water.”
The effects of this high water have been wide-reaching. Beaches have shrunk, while water has inundated docks and destroyed roads.
***
A combination of major winter snowfalls…
Due to global warming?
…and excessive rainfall are primary drivers for this year’s high water.
The Post has a relatively long memory, for a newspaper, so it recalls that just a few years ago, climate change was causing the Great Lakes to dry up. Most of us, if our theory was so decisively refuted by nature, would preserve a discreet silence. But global warming obsessives are undeterred. Low water, high water, below average precipitation, above average precipitation–these seemingly disparate phenomena, which have existed forever and which most attribute to natural cycles, have a common cause: climate change!
While experts work to better understand effects of climate change on Great Lakes water levels, they are seeing increased evidence of a new normal characterized by rapid shifts between extreme high and low levels.
“We are undoubtedly observing the effects of a warming climate in the Great Lakes,” wrote Richard Rood, a University of Michigan climate scientist. “We are at the beginning of what’s going to be a number of decades where the climate is going to be changing very fast. During that time, we will have many unexpected weather events, and we need to learn from these events to better prepare for the future.”
Unexpected weather events, like rainfall and a lack of rainfall. First the “undoubted” effect of global warming on the Great Lakes was drought, now it is too much snow and rain. Whatever. The nice thing about “climate change” as a dogma is that the weather is guaranteed to change, so whatever happens is consistent with the theory that continues to bring in the big bucks. As I’ve said before: I will be more impressed with the global warming fanatics if they predict something before it happens.
Meanwhile, is there any truth to the claim that we are experiencing unprecedented swings in Great Lakes water levels? I will reproduce again a chart from the Wall Street Journal showing water levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron from 1990 to the present:
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.