Big waves! Bad storm.

[dfelsent]

20 foot waves forecast in 4 out of 5 of the Great Lakes.

[Montanan]

Likely to be far too cold to go surfing, what with the wind chill, eh?



Will be interesting to see what damage occurs along the shorelines as a lot of ice should be tossed inland.

[cherylchecheryl]

I'm near Chicago. Temperature is now 14 degrees. Got around 2 inches of snow earlier today. It is not snowing at all now. Grocery stores were a mess with shoppers either in prep for Christmas or to prep for Storm-A-Geddon. No big waves here during daylight hours. Temperature is supposed to drop into single digits


Thinking the storm will miss us, but either way, up here we are used to it.

[kayakerChuck]

I'm near Detroit.

I'm pretty happy to be in a warm house tonight.

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by Montanan

...


Will be interesting to see what damage occurs along the shorelines as a lot of ice should be tossed inland.

Wow, the storm did not even start and some folks are already looking forward to see damages. It blows the mind![emoji86]

[CaptTom]

We've got a decent one going here:

Buoy B01 - Western Maine Shelf
43.179N 70.426W

9:04 am EST 23-Dec-2022
Wind: ESE (120°), 31 kts (58 kph)
Gust: 41 kts (76 kph)
Seas: 22.3 ft (6.8 m)
Peak Period: 11 sec
Pressure: 29.44 inHg (996.8 mb)
Air Temp: 50 °F (10 °C)
Water Temp: 46 °F (8 °C)
Visibility: 1.6 nmi (3.0 km)

At least here it's just wind and rain, no snow or ice (yet). And that report was over an hour ago. It seems to be intensifying a bit at the moment. No power or internet here. I'm a few miles inland. We're coming up on an astronomically high tide, and the winds have been on shore all night and all day so far. This ought to be interesting for the folks at the beach.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by Montanan

Likely to be far too cold to go surfing, what with the wind chill, eh?



Will be interesting to see what damage occurs along the shorelines as a lot of ice should be tossed inland.

There's not likely to be much if any ice yet. Lakes haven't cooled enough, at least not Lake Ontario.... But I can see a fair bit of water being tossed about. Most of the big waves are predicted ( thankfully) for the center of the lake..

[cherylchecheryl]

Originally Posted by SVTatia

Wow, the storm did not even start and some folks are already looking forward to see damages. It blows the mind![emoji86]

I didn't interpret Montanan's comment about a lot of ice being tossed inland and interesting to see the damage along the shoreline negatively. I think it will be interesting to see what happens. I live on Lake Michigan. Shelf ice actually protects the beaches and dunes.

It was -2 here this morning. Warmed up to +1. Neighbor who also lives on the lake (and is super close to it) lost power for 2 hours, and his house went from 72 to 63 degrees. The wind gusts off the lake are crazy. Generators are worth every cent at times like that.

After several years of high Lake Michigan lake levels that took out a lot of structures and houses, the lake is finally lower and the beach is more like normal.

[rslifkin]

No ice yet here on the south shore of Lake Ontario. It's windy, cooling down, and snowing though. Snow is starting to stick here, so things are likely getting pretty icy (it was raining earlier this morning). Temps are down into the mid 20s and falling (started in the high 30s). Out at the end of the river, winds as of 11 AM were reporting 19 kts gusting to 33. Highest gust clocked so far this morning at Rochester was 46 kts.



Marinetraffic shows the lake as nearly empty, so even the big guys are waiting it out (probably a good idea both for sea state and this being freezing spray conditions).

[boatman61]

The end/start of another 12yr cycle..

[Montanan]

No ice yet on the lakes, that is good news as then there is little chance of ice shoves. Still early in the season.

We typically don't have shoves that flow far up from shore but the ice will shove entire docks lifting the piling with every wave from their placement and of course obliterating the dock. One year I watched a 20 acre sized ice flow be pulled by the current flow towards the river outlet and it caught the 100 yard long city dock and just took it down river making a tremendous mess down river and large cost for replacement.

Ice shards are a precursor to a more dangerous flow of ice on the lakes: the ice shove. Ice shoves or ice heaves are like an ice tsunami. Ice shoves are common in the spring on parts of the Great Lakes and other smaller lakes in the north. Strong winds from the same direction for an extended period of time, pushes free-floating ice onshore. Not something wishes to see if you have lake front property.

It has warmed to -8 F this morning and the wind is moderating, will get about 4 inches more snow today.

Examples of Ice Shoves provided below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzcGjtkINMk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqptbtwXUCs&t=6s

[rbk]

Originally Posted by Montanan

Likely to be far too cold to go surfing, what with the wind chill, eh?

Nope…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1BzyBwZ1E

[Sand crab]

They are talking about 20' waves possible on Lake Erie. These are seiche waves. Just like a hurricane storm surge the water gets pushed from one end of the lake to the other. Eventually the water flows back and then forth and so on maybe for days.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/seiche.html

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by rbk

Nope…

Wow.

My name is also Dan, but gave up surfing about 40 years ago, after graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as I no longer had access to warm central California waters. We enjoyed surfing on the north side of Morro Rock at Morro Bay because the water was warmed by the large warm outlet flow from the large electric power generating plant.

Geez, that Dan is an extreme remarkable sportsperson.

My daughter when she was young [starting at about 4 years of age] would swim in Montana lakes in the early season when the water would be about 45 degrees and there might be some snow on the shore edge; she doesn't mind cool water or being wet when it is cool; whereas as to her Dad, not so much, I wait until the water warms to the mid 50's / low 60's to go swimming. We often put one of our sail boats into the water at the beginning of May to celebrate my birthday and wading in to the low 40 degrees temperature water to pull the boat off its trailer at the launch ramp is really harsh. Typically, we are the first sail boat launched for the season and have the entire alpine lake to ourselves.

[cherylchecheryl]

Thank you rbk and Montanan for passing those videos long. I've never heard of the terms ice shoves and ice tsunamis. The Ice Beard Surfers are crazy! My neighbor's son and his buddy in their dry suits would get out in frozen slush to wake board and surf occasionally, but they are nothing compared to the Ice Beard guys.