HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-01-17, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2008.
Geoff Peach, a local expert on
water levels in Lake Huron, says that
whether or not the unseasonable
melting last week will affect water
levels is a tough question to answer.
Peach is a coastal resources
manager with the Lake Huron
Centre for Coastal Conservation
who lives in Blyth. His area of
expertise is Lake Huron and he says
that unless the warm weather
continued, the meltdown last week
wouldn’t have a large effect on the
lake or its levels.
“Depending on how widespread
the snowfall had been [prior to the
melting] in the Lake Huron
watershed and looking at how much
replenishing there is, if it’s lake-
effect snow, it won’t make that much
difference, but if it’s heavier snow in
the northern area of the watershed,
that watershed feeds the lake with
more water than Southwestern
Ontario does, so that could have a
lot of bearing,” he said.
Peach says that levels in Lake
Huron have been declining steadily,
with the last high water period being
1997. Peach says that the lake has
been getting close to record lows,
which were set back in 1964.
“Lake Huron was heading toward
record lows and with this last week
it was close to hitting that, so the
recent precipitation could help to
bring levels back up a bit. But ittakes a lot of water to fill up LakeHuron, so it’s all going to depend onwhat kind of winter we have fromhere and then what kind of springwe have in terms of precipitation,”he said.
“One of the complicating factors
is that because of the relative
warmth of the last eight or nine
years, the lake hasn’t managed to
freeze up and any time there’s a lack
of ice on the lake in the winter, that
means there’s likely more
evaporation happening. That means
more drawdown from the lake.”
There are several factors at play in
addition to the temperature, says
Peach, one of which is a natural
phenomenon called sloshing, where
high winds or a dramatic drop in
barometric pressure causes an effect
similar to water sloshing back and
forth in a bathtub.
“Depending on the balance
between evaporation and
precipitation, as in if there is more
precipitation than evaporation,
levels will come up, but it takes a lot
of water to make that happen in
Lake Huron. However, if we get
more evaporation, then the opposite
is true,” he said.
“There are certain things that
suggest things are going to keep
going that way. One of them is the
temperature of the lake, which
seems to be steadily increasing and
that means more evaporation will
occur.”
The long-term cause and effect of
the warmth is still yet to be
determined, says Peach, who calls
the “What’s in the future?” question,
the million dollar question.“Right now, the lake is wide open,so hopefully in the next few weeks,we’ll get some real cold or we canprobably expect to see moredrawdown from evaporation,” hesaid.
“I’m not sure I would characterize
this weather as unusual. We do get
January thaws. I do think that
temperatures might be
comparatively higher than normal,
but you have to be careful when
talking about weather and climate
change,” Peach said. “So what
we’ve had over the last week or so,
I’d characterize that as a weather-
related phenomena.”
Although Peach isn’t a climate
change expert, and says that weather
has not been without its strange
trends over the years, he does have
his suspicions about the current
temperature trends that we have
been seeing.
The difference between climate
change and weather, says Peach, is
that the former is looking back at
historical data and examining trends
over a long period of time, while the
latter involves looking out a
window.
“The other thing that’s affecting
water is the aspect of climate
change. Whether this is the start of
climate change and its effects on the
Great Lakes, or just part of the
normal cycle is something that we
don’t know yet,” he said. “We can’t
be definitive on it at this point, we
need more years of data to look back
on to be sure. I do, however,
strongly suspect that it is climate
change.”
Uncertain future
Many of the big questions are tough to answer, says Geoff Peach, coastal resources manager
for the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation, who can’t say for sure if the warm
weather of last week is a result of climate change or what effect the melting will have on Lake
Huron’s water level. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Questions remain about Lake Huron levels
County’s
new look
THE EDITOR,
As the Christmas season closes
and the new year begins we would
like to thank our community for
their generous donations of food and
funds to help feed the needy in our
area.
We, at the North Huron
Community Foodshare in Wingham,
through your donations, continue to
provide a helping hand to
approximately 50-60 different
families a month in Wingham,
Lucknow, Blyth, Walton, Brussels,
Wroxeter, Gorrie, Fordwich,
Bluevale and all areas in between
who are experiencing difficulties in
feeding their families.
A big thank you to all church
groups, businesses, schools, service
clubs and individuals who have and
continue to support our efforts. May
God bless you all for your
generosity.
Sincerely,
Pat Nolan, Chairperson
The North Huron Community
Foodshare.
Continued from page 1
evolve.”
Saying that these initiatives were a
result of the county taking a visible
concrete course of action to
accomplish some goals, warden
John Bezaire expressed appreciation
to those before him.
“Thanks has to go to past wardens
Rob Morley and Deb Shewfelt. So
much of the work was done with
them and didn’t get finished. I
become warden and get to take part
in this.”
The re-designed website,
featuring the new county brand can
be accessed at www.huroncounty.ca
Letter to the editor
Foodshare will lend a hand to 50-60 families
Looking for local heroes
There are so many people out there who do
so much to improve their community.
Now you have a chance to say thanks.
Nominate that special person for the 23rd
Annual Citizen Citizenship Awards.
Each year a committee chooses an outstanding citizen from each of the Blyth and area
and Brussels and area communities to receive an award for contribution to the
community. If you know someone you think should be honoured, please fill in the ballot
and send it in. You may attach a longer explanation of why you think your nominee
should win, if you like. If you have nominated someone before and he or she didn't win,
please feel free to try again.
I nominate
as Citizen of the year for
I feel she/he deserves this award because
Nomination Deadline March 31, 2008.
Name and phone number of nominator
❑❑Blyth
& area ❑❑Brussels
& area
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen