Kayak/Canoe Keweenaw Page

Currents tend to go in a counterclockwise direction around Lake Superior because of coriolis “forces” driven by Earth’s rotation and curved surface. Great Lakes currents are visualized and communicated by NOAA GLERL. A simulation of the currents around the Keweenaw by Professor Xue at the Great Lakes Research Center demonstrates this counterclockwise tendency, which is enhanced by the shoreline geography which obstructs and accelerates the flow around the Keweenaw Peninsula. This flow is called the Keweenaw Current. It amounts to up to a mile per hour or more on many days, so if you can paddle counterclockwise you will get its help. Prof Xue modeled the currents of 2008, producing this dramatic movie.

Purpose:
Small boats in near-shore areas of Lake Superior make for great pleasure if the weather cooperates. It can be very dangerous at other times and conditions can change very quickly. This page assembles data that could help paddlers decide their plans for the day. Access to the Keweenaw shore has been highlighted by the Keweenaw Water Trail and the Western UP Water Trail, which makes maps available.

This page is designed to gather links related to wind, current and wave height conditions in the near shore, to empower decisions about where and when to go out. There is lots of relevant information and not enough synthesis for every decision.

In Lake Superior and any body of water currents, winds and waves are all different topics.

Current vectors showing strength and direction of surface currents, Lake Superior, July 2011. Note strong currents along N Shore of Keweenaw. Prof Pengfei Xue

How you can assess the day’s plan, using available information:

Surface winds over the lake surface are another factor of interest, influenced by a plethora of environmental factors. These are forecast very well by NOAA for Lake Superior and other great lakes. The regional pattern is conveyed by commercial weather websites like intellicast’s Menominee wind map, which uses NOAA data and shows the overall wind pattern. NOAA GLERL produces forecast surface wind maps for Lake Superior. The maps have resolution of roughly 10 km, insufficient for accurate and meaningful near shore conditions for kayakers where topography induces friction and complicates the wind patterns and intensities. Winds do not coincide with currents, so these may complement or oppose.

Waves result from surface winds in large part, but there are other infuencing factors (water depth, fetch, wind strength and duration). NOAA GLERL also produces forecast wave height data for Lake Superior at 10 km resolution. Again this is not effective for forecasting realistic near-shore paddling conditions. The lake bottom influences wave heights close to shore.

Near shore conditions for Lake Superior are forecasted and communicated by NOAA NWS and are classified by zones. These near shore zones are quite large, much more extensive than any day’s paddle plan, so once again, although the data are useful and identifying hazardous conditions, they are insufficient for paddler planning in many cases.

Supplementary real time data (we note that additional buoy and webcams would be useful):

Buoys

Webcams

Keweenaw Waterway GLRC

Perhaps a model for wave heights of the near shore is possible, but it does not exist yet.