The Great Lakes Coastal Forecast for this coming Wednesday night and Thursday morning for the east shore of Lake Michigan should be something to behold!!!! I'm prone to take off days when the wave forecasts go up around 10 feet or so... The forecast for Thursday morning is for 20+ footers.



For those of you not familiar with the GLCFS site, here's the link.

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/rsch/glcfs/nws/lwv-fcast.java.html

You'll need to download a Java applet to get the 48 hr animation, but IMO at least, it's worth it if you love to see our lights in stormy seas!

Hope some of you who live within a reasonable drive will be able to make it to one of the SW Michigan lights for this!

Gary

Our weather forecasters are predicting winds from the northwest nearing 60 mph on Thursday and possible into Friday. Gale force winds like that are extremely dangerous but could make for some great action shots in certain areas. It will be an off-shore breeze in my area. I might try to go down to the coast to take a look.

Here's the prediction for the marine weather off our coastline:

THU
SW WIND 25 TO 35 KT BECOMING W 30 TO 40 KT EARLY IN THE
AFTERNOON. GUSTS TO 50 KT POSSIBLE. SEAS 3 TO 6 FT...BUILDING TO 4
TO 8 FT. VSBY AROUND 2 NM IN EARLY MORNING SHOWERS.

THU NIGHT
W WIND 35 KT WITH GUSTS TO 50 KT POSSIBLE. SEAS 4 TO 8
FT...BUILDING TO 5 TO 10 FT.

FRI
W WIND 35 KT WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO 45 KT. SEAS 5 TO 10
FT...SUBSIDING TO 4 TO 8 FT.

FRI NIGHT
NW WIND 30 KT WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO 40 KT. SEAS 3 TO
6 FT.

SAT
NW WIND 20 TO 30 KT WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO 40 KT. SEAS 3 TO
6 FT SUBSIDING TO 2 TO 4 FT.

SUN
NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT BECOMING N. SEAS 2 TO 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO
1 TO 3 FT.

It could be an interesting couple of days.

:rolleyes: Bob :rolleyes:

Gary....this means the rest of us are in for some more magnificant storm photos!

Looking forward to seeing them, but hope the photographer stays safe!

Judy

Gary..."you're the man" for the job.

I can't wait to see what kind of pictures you take. Be safe.

I just paid attention to our forcast and yes it seems we're due for another wind event tomorrow with gusts of up to 70 mph! I did hear mention of erosion on southern Lake Ontario.

No photos for me, just another time to take in the bird feeders and fill the bathtub in case we lose power.

The front just came through here tonight. Tornado touchdown 15 miles south of us, and fairly gusty winds here. Looks like Fairport Harbor, Ohio may get some pretty high waves too. Would love to shoot the Breakwater Light tomorrow, but booked up with client meetings.

Hey Gary! I just got back from Grand Haven. I need to post process my shots. WOW! The front was moving through at sunset and I raced the dark clouds to get there before they did. Got a sunset, some serious wave action, etc! Unfortunately, I also busted my good lens I just bought because I let go of my heavy Bogen tripod for two seconds and it crashed onto the cement pier. Popped my lens right off the camera. I hope it's fixable...the optics are fine, just the lens mount that's busted...the wind was that strong...thankfully the camera body is fine.

I learned that lesson a long time ago about never letting go of a tripod in a gale... fortunately my lesson was taught me atop a sand dune...

I'm headed to St Joe this morning early and will then probably work my way up the lake shore to catch South Haven and probably Grand Haven. As for the breakwater at Holland

Gary

Sorry to hear about your lens accident, Jen.
I hope it's fixable!

Judy

Gary, you're either still out there, or finished already as I right this. Those winds are blowing all the way down here in Richmond.

I know we'll see some amazing results from your efforts!

Judy

Gary, can't wait to see your shots! Is it blowing snow down there as hard as it is here? it looks like Christmas here...can't even see across the field out my window...

Jen and Gary, you should have come up this way to Oswego. Our power came back on just at Noon today after having been off for the better part of 4 hours. According to the Noon news report there was a wind gust 75' in the air above the lake near Oswego that was clocked at 83 mph! I missed hearing how high the waves were.

Ironically a short time before I had gone up to town and stopped at a convenience store for a cup of nice hot coffee. I hung around for a while soaking up some of their heat and read the paper. There were two local articles about windmills. One of them was to do with a windmill that's to be installed up near Lake Ontario, a precursor to the installation of windmills out in the lake. I'd heard this was in the works quite some time ago. Pity it's taking so long as the majority of folks in our area without power live in Oswego county. At 83 mph those windmills would certainly be a big help!

We started out last night with a bit of thunder and the wind picked up overnight. This morning it was just a question of when, not if, the power would go out. Now the wind's let up some but it's snowing. 2-4" is the forecast but some areas could get up to a foot. The really bad news is that my neighbor who plows had a serious heart attack Tuesday night that required a double bypass.

Just you all wait until you see what Gary and I got at St. Joe. Not sure what he saw at South Haven, but we got a show in St. Joe. I know I can't wait to see the results!!

I think that some of the wind your talking about has hit New England. It's H-O-W-L-I-N-G outside.

No windmills here though.

Bert

This is one of the shots from St. Joe on Thursday morning. The waves Thursday morning were running consistently in the 12-15 foot range with the occasional wave approaching 20 feet or so. The light was highly variable due to the clouds blowing by overhead, which made metering challenging....



Gary

Gary,

You rose to the challenge very well. That is a fantastic shot. Looks cold.

Lovely, Gary! I can see the meter challenge with that "hot" sky back there. Looks like you did a nice job handling that. You kept the detail in the sky as well as the pier. Post some more!

Fantastic Gary!

WOW!!!
Ruthie

Great timing, Gary! A classic shot for sure!

Bob