Linda and I plan to drive up to Rossport, Ontario, next week to paddle and camp the islands that separate Nipigon Bay from the rest of Lake Superior, so yesterday I searched the Web for information about Lake Superior water temperatures. There are four weather buoys in Lake Superior that supply water temperature and wave height data. Though there are at least three Web sites that have information from the buoys owned by the U.S., I have found only one that also supplies information from the Canadian buoy, which is a few miles south of the Slate Islands. That site is located at http://www.nws.fsu.edu/buoy/wgtlk.html. Lake Superior is very warm this year. The three American weather buoys, which are stationed in the centers of the western, middle, and eastern parts of the lake, all indicate surface temperatures in the mid-60s F., which is much warmer than normal. The water around the Slate Islands buoy is 6 to 7 degrees colder, fluctuating between 59 and 60 degrees F. over the last 24 hours. This still is warmer than last August, when Linda and I crossed to the Slates from Terrace Bay, and the water was so icy that I could not paddle without gloves. What it means for our upcoming trip is that we can wear our new Splash Gear Aquastretch wet suits in relative safety instead of our dry suits. (After the Stockton Island Rendezvous a couple of weekends ago, Linda said "Never again!" to Neoprene wet suits.) Winds are diminishing now, but about 36 hours ago, the winds all over the lake were averaging about 18 knots and the wind waves at the buoys were running about 3.5 to 5 feet, and were classified as very steep. Another interesting site is the KITES site at http://chmac2.chem.mtu.edu/KITES/KITES.ssi, which has surface temperature maps of Lake Superior from April through July of this year. The maps show that the surface temperature of the lake is relatively uniform this summer, except in shallow areas and near coastal areas where the winds trap warm water against the shore or currents bring cold water from the depths. KITES is the Keweenaw Interdisciplinary Transport Experiment in Superior, which is studying the chemistry, physics, and biology of the Keweenah Current, which runs along the west shore of the Keweenah peninsula. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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