Lake Erie Seiche - storm makes the lake lopsided

masraum · 12-31-2025, 01:21 PM

Interesting. I'd never heard of a seiche (pronounced Say-sh). It seems there was a storm the beginning of this week blowing west to east. That storm with 60mph winds caused waves that got up to 20'. And it caused the water level of the west end of Lake Erie to drop by 7.5 feet (moved the shore by out by up to ¼ of a mile), and the east end of the lake was 6 feet higher than usual for a spread of 13.5 feet between the two ends of the lake.

Folks expected this phenomenon and went exploring. Part of an old VW that had fallen through the ice while pulling skiers was exposed. A snowmobile that fell through the ice was also exposed.

I was looking at "seiche" expecting it to be pronounced differently. And it was coined by a Swiss person which cemented my theory that everyone was pronouncing it wrong, but after a little search, I discovered that it was French/Swiss, not German/Swiss, so I guess the pronunciation is correct.

stevej37 · 02:05 PM

Bomb Cyclone?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2025/12/29/power-outages-in-michigan-bomb-cyclone/87943182007/

wdfifteen · wdfifteen's Garage

There are a lot of pictures on line of people walking hundreds of yards out onto the lakebed. Not me. That water went somewhere, and it’s gonna come back, fast.

pwd72s · 12-31-2025, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

There are a lot of pictures on line of people walking hundreds of yards out onto the lakebed. Not me. That water went somewhere, and it’s gonna come back, fast.

sounds wise to me...

cabmandone · cabmandone's Garage

I think this happened a few weeks ago just before Christmas too. Or maybe it was just after Thanksgiving.

Zeke · 01-01-2026, 10:39 AM

It's always interesting to visit a lake on the TVA system. They get really low in the Fall. I worked on a lake dock on Logan Martin Lake in AL and one day I dropped a hand tool in the water. Being cloudy and murky there was no way of finding it or even making it worse by stepping on it.

When Fall came I went there and walked to the spot and picked it up. Little rust but plenty useable. Some tools that fell into the abyss over the years will stay until demolition. Even then....

Patrick's statement reminds me of a Tsunami. Never actually seen it except in pics. Scary.

NYPorsche · NYPorsche's Garage

It's a pretty common occurrence - notable ones happen 4-6 times each fall/winter. This one with a 13.7 foot elevation difference across the lake was higher in magnitude than is common (8-11 foot elevations differences happen a couple times each winter). Levels came up to LWD +7.9 ft in Buffalo and dropped to LWD -5.8 ft in Toledo.

Because Lake Erie water levels have dropped back to normal from the decade of high water between 2015-2024, the visual impact at Toledo was more impressive as the lake receded. On the Buffalo end, the water rise wasn't as dramatic as we saw during the record high water levels of 2019-2020. A storm on Halloween recorded an elevation of LWD +10.7. Below are a couple photos from that event - one on Oct 31st and the 2nd the next day. During the storm, the pier was fully underwater and wave spray was nearly reaching the deck of the Peace Bridge just to the south. This is at the outlet of Lake Erie into the Niagara River - so the water to the right is on its way to Niagara Falls.

Technically speaking the difference in water levels is a storm setup and the seiche is the response when the winds stop and the water sloshes back and forth between Buffalo and Toledo. The oscillation usually goes on for a couple of days.

Lake Erie has larger storm setups and subsequent seiche responses due to its orientation relatively in line with the prevailing wind direction and shallower water. The other lakes will see some changes in water level, but not nearly as substantial.

masraum · 01-05-2026, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYPorsche

It's a pretty common occurrence - notable ones happen 4-6 times each fall/winter. This one with a 13.7 foot elevation difference across the lake was higher in magnitude than is common (8-11 foot elevations differences happen a couple times each winter). Levels came up to LWD +7.9 ft in Buffalo and dropped to LWD -5.8 ft in Toledo.

Technically speaking the difference in water levels is a storm setup and the seiche is the response when the winds stop and the water sloshes back and forth between Buffalo and Toledo. The oscillation usually goes on for a couple of days.

Lake Erie has larger storm setups and subsequent seiche responses due to its orientation relatively in line with the prevailing wind direction and shallower water. The other lakes will see some changes in water level, but not nearly as substantial.

Snipped some stuff for brevity's sake, but lots of interesting, good info. Thanks for posting. It makes sense that with the potential for huge level differences, it wouldn't just immediately stop but would have to slosh a bit before it returns to equilibrium.

I was assuming that the length and orientation of the lake had to play into this due to wind direction. The depth also enhancing things also makes sense.

3rd_gear_Ted · 3rd_gear_Ted's Garage

What happens to that special smell of the Lake ?

Bill Douglas · 01-05-2026, 03:41 PM

The sea does it too. Storm surge.

With the sea if you get a storm surge + extra high tide + big ground swell + low pressure weather system you can have trouble LOL

A high pressure weather system pushes the sea down by up to a meter. A low one can do the opposite.

oldE · Yesterday, 07:17 AM

Indeed. The Saxby gale in October 1869 added a 2 meter storm surge to a period of extreme tides in the Bay of Fundy. This resulted in millions in damages and Nova Scotia was turned into an island for about 36 hours. My mother was born along the bay 40 years later and remembered old folks talking about the event as she was growing up.