Expecting Sandy

This photo, from this morning at 9:05am, shows waves that have grown a lot since yesterday afternoon.

Still, I would say that this is not really unusual for a Lake Michigan storm.  We have lots of days where the waves are pretty big and loud. Here's a video from the same time, 9am this morning, October 30, 2012:



Loud, but still not too violent.  Will update later today.

Back! With Hurricane Sandy Reports

Greetings all,
Believe it or not, I HAVE been taking photos since May, just not posting them.  Eventually, I will do some back blogging and post the spring, summer, and early fall photos of the lake.

For right now, I want to respond to several requests for photos of the waves on Lake Michigan.  The effects of Hurricane Sandy will be comparatively light here in the Midwest, but there are high waves predicted for Lake Michigan over the next several days, so I am chronicling them here.

For starters, here's yesterday morning (10/29/12) about 9am:

Just some mild ripples.

Here's yesterday afternoon, around 3:30:

The waves are definitely picking up by then.  Next entry will be this morning, 10/30/12.  Stay tuned.

Foreboding

A storm brewing out on the Lake never really made it to shore, but the effect was still quite sinister. From 3/27/12.

T'was the witch of November come stealin'

36 Years Ago Today. Informative links at this earlier post.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
By Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'.
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'.
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early!

Pouty

Another storm last night, but no glorious morning. Or afternoon. Just a petulant, frowny, in-a-bad-mood giant body of water out there. From this afternoon.

After the Storm

 In the wee hours of the morning, there was a terrible storm. Lots of rain and wind, waves I could hear from my closed up house three blocks away. But oh, what a beautiful morning! These were taken around 9am.

Here is some video footage of the much-calmed, but still beautiful, waves.

BackBlogging: Storm Drama

One of the more dramatic photos of the June 30th storm: an overturned park pavilion. That's the inside of the pavilion you are seeing; the wind literally scooped it up and flipped it on its back, like a turtle.
And here's a tree snapped like a toothpick. Most of this is cleaned up now. Our parks are more like open fields and less like forests. Five minutes took out over 800 trees city-wide, some of which were growing for 100 years or more. Makes you think.

I'm Back! Blogging

After the I'm Back! blogging, I will need to do a LOT of backblogging to catch up from summer. But anyway, this was today. Above, new life in one of the trees broken off in the June storm.

Someone was trying to be romantic with the rocks on the beach. I think it says "...U GO OUT WITH ME?"
Answer: NO. Oh, snap! and with rocks, no less!
And here's a pretty view looking south at dusk.

Backblogging: Anger in the Sky

Clouds roll in over Lake Michigan on June 22.

Lakefront Devastation

Last night, I was going to sit down and blog all the beautiful photos I took in June, so that June would not be a post-less month. The wind had other ideas. Our beautiful lakefront trees have been destroyed. We are all devastated. When we get power at our house, I'll try to post some before and after pics. So sad. So, so sad.

Tempestuous

That is an angry lake out there. From noonish.

You Want "Icebergs" in Lake Michigan?

This is the best we can do (unlike this). Big, huge chunks of snow washed into the harbor channel by last week's big storm/waves.
The second "iceberg" (in back) is piled up along the concrete breakers.
For scale.
Here's one giant non-eroded pile of snow on shore. There are piles like this all along the shoreline. And all this after several days of melting in the warm (40 degrees!) temperatures.

Horizontal Stripes

This was taken just before a downpour of epic proportions.

Fierce

I did not manage to get a good shot of the waves, but they were something today. Strong and LOUD. Missed yesterday, which was pretty with shades of blue and green running through the water. Sigh. Things will lighten up soon, I hope, both on the water and in life.

Not Brown Yet!

Usually, when the Lake gets all roiled up during a storm, the water turns chocolaty brown. So far today it is hanging onto the green with a stripe of blue. The clouds are full of snow, which is falling sparsely, but we expect a whole lot more in the coming hours.

Ruins* of her ice water mansion

Today is the 34th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I chronicled it last year in this post. This summer I bought a children's book on the tragedy, pictured above. I read it last night to my 5-year-old, and he begged me to stop before the end, because it made him so sad.

*Or rooms? I've seen different versions. I think rooms makes more sense, but ruins works too.

Here's the video of the famous song:


And the lyrics:

The Wreck of the Edmund
Fitzgerald
by Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel
firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of
sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish
Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have
capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.
© 1976 Moose Music, Inc.