Low water levels caused by high winds have exposed a piece of history. Take a look at this shipwreck on Lake Erie near Kingsville.
CBC – Top Stories
- A shipwreck was briefly detected in Lake Erie after high winds pushed the water away from shore near Kingsville, Ontario.
- Historians believe the sunken ship may have been the Deming or the Overton, both of which sank before 1900.
- The event was caused by a strong low-pressure system that created sustained winds, causing low water levels in the western basin of the lake.
- A local diver discovered and photographed the exposed wreck, and shared the images on social media.
South-westerly winds pushed water from the western basin of the lake to the eastern basin, causing the water level near Kingsville to drop and parts of the lake, including the top of the sunken ship, to become visible. The diver who found it said historians believe the ship may have been the Deming, according to a post written in a group dedicated to ship enthusiasts.
Diver Matt Vermette shared a video and photo, writing, “This isn’t an active shipwreck, but this woman appeared a few hundred yards off shore in Kingsville, ON. Thanks to the wind, I got to see the wreck today without my drysuit.”
According to CBC News, the shipwreck was documented in newspaper archives dating back to the 1900s.
In addition to the shipwreck, locals and meteorologists flooded social media with striking images of the floating lake bottom, highlighting the unusual effect of winds across the lake.
how did the weather do this
The sudden appearance of the shipwreck near Kingsville, Ontario, was caused by strong, hurricane-force winds in Lake Erie, part of the same system that created blizzard conditions in Michigan and heavy lake-effect snow in the northern Great Lakes.
Over the past several days, a deep low pressure system has extended from the northern plains to the Great Lakes, with a tight pressure gradient producing sustained southwesterly winds of 20-30 mph and gusts to 50 mph along the lake shore. These winds pushed water from the western basin of Lake Erie to the eastern basin, lowering the water level near Kingsville by several feet and temporarily exposing the lake bed, including the sunken ship.
“This is going to be one of the strongest events we’ve had in some time, with 3 to 4 feet of water rising from the western basin of Lake Erie eastward,” David Marsalek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, told the Free Press on Thursday.
While the seiche-like event displaced water by several feet, it never fully became a true seiche, as the water returned slowly rather than in a sudden surge.
Where is Kingsville, Ontario?
Vermette told CBC that the wreckage was discovered about 150 metres, or about 165 feet, off the coast of Kingsville.
Brandi D. Addison covers weather across the United States as a Weather Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at baddison@gannett.com, Find him on Facebook,
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