The International Joint Commission, the U.S. and Canadian body that regulates the Great Lakes, says a stunning amount of water has flowed into them over just the first 12 days of April.
The IJC says today that Lake Ontario has risen nearly 10 inches since April first, which is about 1.6 trillion gallons of water. Lake Erie is up 3.7 inches. Add another 481 billion gallons there.
Add in Lake Michigan and the upper lakes and that’s well over five trillion gallons in two weeks. The IJC says that’s enough for all 318 million Americans to satisfy our daily total water use for 164 days.
This is due to the recent wet weather, combined with earlier snowmelt that causes the seasonal rise in lake levels every spring.