Are We Having a Normal Winter Yet?
If December’s snow trend holds up, this could be a good year
for Lake Superior to recover a little bit of its sinking water level.
On the western portions of the lake, it appeared that
snowfall was up by about 11 inches so far for the season. In central
Lake Superior it was 10 inches or so above average.
Average snowfall for Negaunee, Michigan, where one of the
U.S. National Weather Service stations is located on Lake Superior, is
about 180 inches each winter, says meteorologist Jason Alumbaugh. By
December, the area had 71.2 inches of snow.
Duluth was at 34.5 inches of snow, 22 inches above average
for December and may end as either the fourth or fifth snowiest
December on record, says meteorologist Dean Packingham.
Snow in Duluth often is not “lake effect,” meaning that it
adds more water to the lake. Once this December the western part of
Lake Superior actually got “lake effect” snow from Lake Nipigon, a rare
occurrence.
Lake Notes
 Wildlife
experts fear that Lake Superior loons may soon suffer the large
die-offs from botulism that already killed thousands on all four other
Great Lakes. Quagga mussels (an invasive species) transfer bacteria
from lake bottoms and pass it to round gobies (another exotic species)
that loons eat. The type E Botulism poisoning that results paralyzes
the birds and they drown. Both quagga mussels and round gobies have
been identified in the Duluth-Superior harbor. More than 100 loons and
other waterfowl died in November alone on the other lakes.
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