Warming Lakes: Barometers of Climate Change?
News reports about warming lake temperatures began to trickle into my world lakes news feed as the summer heated up this year. I read stories about warmer than normal lakes in North America and Europe, including lakes in Kansas, California, and Washington. By the end of July, the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota Duluth reported that Lake Superior’s average surface temperature was 8-10°F above average and expected to stay above normal through the remainder of summer.
I had recently returned from a visit with family on Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan. This was not the first time in recent years that I found the lake surprisingly comfortable for swimming in early July. I was tempted to write it off as an unusually warm summer, which it was. But the news reports comparing lake temperatures to historical records and my own experience at a beach I’ve visited for over 40 years made me wonder what the latest research tells us about the effects of global climate change on lakes.
