Lake Superior water levels

Lake Superior water levels are near record levels for this time of the year. That’s a far cry from three years ago when record-low levels were causing some consternation.

But, judging by some non-scientific photography, it’s hard to tell the difference.

Here’s MPR reporter Bob Kelleher’s picture that he took in 2006.

old_superior_level.jpg

And here’s a picture he took from roughly the same spot in Duluth today.

new_superior_level.jpg

The crooked old pilings in both allow some point of reference for both.

Superior has always confounded those who try to figure out what the long-term implication is at any particular moment. In 2007, the water temperature was heating up. Then last summer, it plunged.