Lake Erie’s water level is near average despite a winter without a lot of snow.
At the beginning of February, Lake Erie was five centimetres above average. Heavy rainfall in the early part of the month pushed the level up to the current level of nine cm above average.

Discuss on Educated Angler ( 0 )

Chuck Southam, a water resources engineer with Environment Canada, said typically the lake level doesn’t change in February as it’s usually frozen over. Although the open water can sometimes lead to increased evaporation, Southam said with the water temperature at 0.18? Celsius evaporation isn’t a huge concern. In fact, he said ice is starting to form again close to shore and in the western end of the lake.

The bigger threat to the water levels is the lack of a snow pack.
"It’s a bit of a concern spring runoff might not be as great as normal," he said. "We certainly don’t have the snow we usually do."

Usually Lake Erie’s levels increase 12 cm on average during the month of March. Most of that is due to spring melt. The lake goes up another 14 cm during May from rainfall. Southam is concerned the March increase may not make the average, but said precipitation is also a factor. While there is little snow south of the 401, Southam said there is some north of Waterloo in the area surrounding the upper end of the Grand River that would eventually end up in Lake Erie.

Inflow from Lake Huron is the other factor affecting Lake Erie levels. Lake Huron is still 19 cm below average, but Southam said it’s been more stable than last year. In addition, there is snow surrounding the tributaries flowing into the river.

"Looking into summer we might see levels at or just below average," he said.