Recent Great Lakes Water Highs, Lows Tied to Climate Change

Climate change is causing record high water levels in the Great Lakes basin only years after record lows, battering coastal communities and fundamentally changing aquatic ecosystems.

Since January 2019, each of the five Great Lakes recorded its highest or second highest level in at least 100 years, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data showed. But the region also experienced drought-like conditions in 2013 not seen since the 1960s, illustrating the recent turbulent impact of climate change on the lakes’ water levels, said a government researcher working in the region.

“It’s definitely climate related,” said Eric Anderson, an oceanographer at NOAA’s ...