UMD Professor Explains Lake Superior Water Temperatures

DULUTH, Minn. — If you jumped in Lake Superior this year, you may have been surprised by the unseasonably warmer water.

Experts says temperatures along the shorelines in the Twin Ports have spiked into the upper 60s at times. But UMD Professor Jay Austin tells us Lake Superior’s warmth this season is about average when you factor in deep water temperatures.

Professor Austin studies lakes across the world as part of UMD’s Large Lakes Observatory. He says we can learn a lot about our climate by studying water conditions below the surface.

“I guess one way to think of it is that lakes are these sorts of features on our landscape that respond to climate and unsurprisingly the temperature in a lake is set, to a large extent, by the temperature of the atmosphere above it. And so, lakes are really good indicator of long-term change of climate,” said Austin.

As for this summer, Austin says the higher water temperatures along the shore of Lake Superior are a result of a relatively mild winter, with little ice coverage.