Canadian Angling

Canadian Angling.com: Lake Superior is the largest of the 5 Great Lakes of North America and is the largest fresh water lake by surface area and third largest by volume is experiencing extremely high water temperatures. Lake Superior has a surface area of approximately 31,820 square miles (82,413km) and contains 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 km³) of water. It is important to note that a dramatic change in the water temperature of such a large lake is a major concern for climatologists, ecologists, and scientists.
The average temperature of the lake during the summer is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 °C). Lake Superior is the largest, deepest and coldest of the Great Lakes.. Because of its size Superior has a retention time of 191 years. Retention time means how long the water remains in the lake.
A Study by professors at the University of Minnesota Duluth has noted that Lake Superior may have warmed faster than its surrounding climate. They found out that the summer surface temperatures have increased about 4.5 Fahrenheit degrees (2.5 Celsius degrees) since 1979, compared with an approximately 2.7 Fahrenheit degree (1.5 Celsius degree) increase in the surrounding average air temperature. This year’s surface water temperature is about 20F higher than normal for this time of year. Scientists believe this has been caused by a winter with very little ice, earlier spring melt of the ice cover than normal and a record warm spring.
As many fishermen know, the Great Lakes usually mixes and turns over when surface water temperatures reach 39F around mid-July. This year it occurred in mid-June.
UMD researcher Jay Austin studied temperature data from three buoys in the lake and noted that the warm up is similar to 1998, the fastest since records have been kept starting in 1979. In 1998, a warm year, the lake peaked at 68 degrees, “and we’re well on our way to that, or higher,” Austin said.
“We would normally just be getting to turnover, to 39 degrees, about this time in July,” Austin said. “But it happened so early this year that we’re already at 59 degrees (at the western Lake Superior NOAA buoy). That’s 20 degrees warmer than we should be right now.”
The surface water temperature of Lake Superior probably isn’t finished rising, especially with the recent heat wave and could reach record temperatures by mid-August.
Scientists are now starting to study the effects of the rising temperatures will have on the lake and ecosystems involved.

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