Will Lake Michigan water levels set all-time mark?

From staff reports

We are closely monitoring Lake Michigan’s extreme high water levels this summer—their impact on beaches and beach walking, commerce and the economy, and whether their meteoric rise since bottoming out in 2013 represents a “new normal” in the age of Climate Change.

Updated weekly statistics from the US Army Corps of Engineers shows Lake Michigan-Huron (considered the same body of water) water levels reaching an estimated 581.96 feet on July 5. That’s 4 inches higher than they were on June 5 and a whopping 15 inches higher than July 5, 2018. Water levels this month are 31 inches higher than the long-term monthly average for July. They are currently on par with the previous year of the highest recorded monthly mean, which was 1986.

The Army Corps predicts that water levels will rise another 2 inches by August 5. The Army Corp’s six-month forecast bulletin predicts that monthly water levels through the rest of this summer could exceed the records set in 1986.