Waves could break twenty feet high on Lake Michigan today

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The National Weather Service says a low-pressure system and strong winds will create some notable waves on Lake Michigan in the coming days, including some that could potentially break 20 feet.

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The National Weather Service has updated its message maritime forecast Thursday morning. Winds could reach 45 knots, prompting a gale warning for Lake Michigan.

The warning divides the lake into two regions, a hypothetical line between Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Pentwater, Michigan. In the north, waves should be between 2 and 3 meters high on Thursday, with some as high as 4 meters. In the south, waves can reach 12 and 16 feet, with a potential peak of 21 feet.

According to the NWS, waves should remain strong over the next few days, but they will be strongest on Thursday and Friday.

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In the southern region, waves should moderate to a range of 2.5 to 3 meters on Thursday evening and rise again to between 3 and 4 meters on Friday.

Despite the warning, weather observers shouldn’t expect to see 21-footers crashing over West Michigan piers.

The maritime forecast focuses on waters more than five nautical miles from the coastline. Although the waves will still be high, it is highly unlikely that they will be at that height by the time they reach the coast. Wind direction, topography and the shallower waters tend to slow the waves as they approach.

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According to the NWS, the largest recorded wave the recorded value for Lake Michigan was 23 feet, captured by a buoy in the middle of the lake, about 40 miles east of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on September 30, 2011. But closer to shore, those waves were about 18 feet high.

That doesn’t mean they can’t happen. One in particular meteorological tsunami swept into Grand Haven on July 4, 1929, with one wave estimated at twenty feet high, killing ten people.

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