Gales of November
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2022 6:44 am
The NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (GLREL) is predicting severe wave conditions on Lake Michigan today and tomorrow, and forecasting wave heights building to 20-feet in the northern-central portion.
The wind speed forecast shows sustained winds from the Southwest at 40-knots or higher from about 2 a.m. Sunday until Noon Sunday, November 6, 2022. Winds of gale force are 34 to 47 knots. Winds of storm force are 48 knots or higher.
There are several ships heading southbound at this writing that will be encountering this storm.
I anticipate that some of those southbound ships may divert to take shelter in Good Harbor Bay, just south of Leland.
You can see the latest wave height model output at:
https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/emf/waves/WW3/
As Gordon Lightfoot sang, “ When the Gales of November come early…”
- Fig. 1. Wave Height forecast for Lake Michigan from GLREL. This plot is for 0200 on Sunday November 6, 2022.
- GLREL_WaveHeightForecastNov2022.jpg (122.78 KiB) Viewed 1685 times
The wind speed forecast shows sustained winds from the Southwest at 40-knots or higher from about 2 a.m. Sunday until Noon Sunday, November 6, 2022. Winds of gale force are 34 to 47 knots. Winds of storm force are 48 knots or higher.
There are several ships heading southbound at this writing that will be encountering this storm.
- Fig. 2. AIS positions of ships in northern Lake Michigan at 7 a.m. November 5, 2022, from MarineTraffic.com.
- LakeMichiganAISplotNov0520227am.jpg (45.13 KiB) Viewed 1683 times
I anticipate that some of those southbound ships may divert to take shelter in Good Harbor Bay, just south of Leland.
- Fig. 3. Excerpt from NOAA Chart 14912 showing Good Harbor Bay.
- goodHarborBay.jpg (88.19 KiB) Viewed 1672 times
You can see the latest wave height model output at:
https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/emf/waves/WW3/
As Gordon Lightfoot sang, “ When the Gales of November come early…”