TOLEDO, Ohio — Powerful wind gusts from a low pressure system are producing a seiche in Lake Erie and the Maumee River on Monday, a phenomenon that exposes the usually-covered floors of these bodies of water.
What is a seiche?
According to the National Weather Service, a seiche usually occurs when strong winds and rapid changes in atmospheric pressure push water from one end of a body of water to another. In the case of Monday’s seiche, the water is being pushed from Lake Erie’s western basin to its eastern end, near Buffalo, New York.
Northwest Ohio saw on Monday morning wind gusts as strong as 60 mph near Lake Erie’s shore. These are the winds pushing water away from northwest Ohio, lowering the water levels in the Maumee River and nearby Lake Erie shores by as much as 4 to 6 feet. Waves in Lake Erie on Monday were as tall as 15 feet on account of these strong winds.
Below is an image of the Maumee River near Owens Corning in downtown Toledo, showing the exposed riverbed during Monday’s seiche…