30 November 2025
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes and can be very calm, but when the wind kicks up in November the waves start crashing and the lake reveals its hidden treasures.
On the day before Thanksgiving the wind blew steadily from the west-southwest at 25-30 mph, gusting to 50 mph in Ohio.
Since this is the same direction as the length of Lake Erie, the wind moved the water away from the lake’s western end.
Those in the know went treasure hunting on Wednesday and Thursday in Kingsville, Ontario and Avon Lake, Ohio.
At Kingsville, a local resident found a shipwreck that hadn’t been seen for many years.
At Avon Lake the wave action tossed treasures above the high water mark, perfect for beach glass hunting.
The lake hit its high water mark at Erie, PA at 2:42pm on Wednesday 26 November.
After that the wind died down and the lake sloshed back and forth like a bathtub. This effect is called a seiche. You can see this on the lake level graph, rising and falling stepwise after the high water mark.
Seiches are not uncommon at Lake Erie. For more information see last year’s blog at :
I wish this was predictable so me and a metal detector can plan a visit.
Oh so interesting!! Thanks, Kate!