NOAA: Climate Change Impacts

From NOAA:

  • Overall, drought affected 46 percent of the nation, including the Upper Midwest, where persistently dry and warmer than average conditions have helped bring Lake Superior’s water level to its lowest point on record for this time of year, according to NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
  • Levels of all the Great Lakes, which together make up about 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water, have been in decline since the late 1990s.  Lakes Huron and Michigan were about two feet below their long-term average levels, while Lake Superior was about 20 inches off, Lake Ontario seven inches below, and Lake Erie three inches below normal in September.