Dear Tom,
The water level of Lake Michigan is finally rising. How high would it have to go for it to flood Chicago?
Marjorie Satterllie
Dear Marjorie,
Meteorologist Keith Kompoltowicz of the Army Corps of Engineers tells us water levels in the Lake Michigan-Lake Huron system have come up about 5 inches since the onset of a rise that began in December. It’s a direct result of this winter’s exceptionally heavy snowfall across the lakes’ drainage basin.
The corps projects an additional increase of 3 inches by the end of April, and the good news is that the rising trend is likely to continue through the spring and summer.
The Lake Michigan management section of the Illinois Department of Natural resources says a rise of 8 to 10 feet would flood the Loop and much of the rest of the city. That has happened during the last 14,000 years when the southern extent of an ice cap associated with the last ice age blocked the northern water exit of Lake Michigan. The lake level rose and flooded out to about where Harlem Avenue is now.
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