The water level of Lake Michigan is up 2″ in the past 2 weeks. That’s due mostly to Gustav. The river crests from Ike are reaching Lake Michigan, so we may add another inch in the next week. Remember that Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected at the Mac. Bridge and they are at the same level. Even if the south end of Lake Michigan saw 5-10 inches of rain in a week, most of the Michigan/Huron basin had much less than that. Lake Michigan is now 11″ higher than one year ago. That represents a gain of 4.29 TRILLION gallons! However, the lake is still about a foot below the long-term September average. All the Great Lakes are significantly higher than one year ago. Lake Superior is up a whopping 14″, Lake Erie is up 4″ and Lake Ontario is also up 11″. The crest on the Grand River is passing through western Kent and Ottawa Counties today (Saturday). The  Kalamazoo river has fallen significantly at Comstock. The St. Joseph River has fallen nearly a foot in Three Rivers and the Morrow Dam (just north of I-94 and just SE of Kalamazoo) is holding firm.  Hopefully, Skidmore Park will be back to normal soon, along with the nice little zoo they have there.  The dry weather has helped. It could have been worse. Thanks to the Pierce Cedar Creek Institute for inviting me out to speak Friday AM.  You can see some of the crops in Barry Co. suffered from drought conditions in August.   Enjoy your weekend!