Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the tenth biggest lake in the world and it is fourth biggest lake among the five available Great Lakes in North America. In terms of surface area, the Lake Erie is the twelfth biggest lake in the world. The lake is the shallowest, southernmost, and the smallest lake by volume among the 5 lakes in the Great Lakes, and so also it has the shortest mean water habitation time. The northern coast of the Lake Erie is surrounded by the province of Ontario of Canada, with the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York on its easternmost and southern shores and the Michigan State on the west. The lake was named by the Native Americans’ Erie ethnic group who lived down its southern coast.

The major usual outflow from the Lake Erie is in the course of the Niagara River, which offers hydroelectric power to the United States and Canada as it spins gigantic turbines close to Niagara Falls at New York, Lewiston and Queenston. Some outflow from the lake takes place through the Welland Canal that diverts water for boat passages between Port Colborne in Ontario on Lake Erie and St. Catharines on Lake Ontario, a difference in height of 326 feet (99 meters). Lake Erie's The ecological health of the Lake Erie has been a continuing apprehension for decades, with problems such as pollution, overfishing, and algal flowers and eutrophication creating headlines.

Lake Erie contains a lake preservation time of 2.6 years, which is the shortest time among all the Great Lakes. This denotes that the lake water is rehabilitated from upstream resources once in three years. The surface area of the Lake Erie is 25,667 square kilometers (9,910 square miles). The water level of the lake varies according to the seasons like in the other Great Lakes. Usually, the low water levels are during January and February, and the high water levels are during June or July, even though there have been exemptions. The average annual water level varies, according to the long-term rainfall. Short-term water level changes are frequently caused by seiches, which are chiefly high while the southwesterly storms blow across the extent of the lake at the time of storms. These storms make the water to heap up at the eastern extreme point of the lake. Seiches that are driven by storms can result in the onshore damage.

Similar to the other Great Lakes, Lake Erie creates lake effect snow while the opening cold winter winds pass over the temperate waters. When the variation in temperature between the fairly temperate surface water and the colder air attains a threshold value of 10 degrees Celsius to 13 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit to 23 degrees Fahrenheit), then, the lake-effect snow becomes probable. Serious lake-effect snowstorms can take place while cold air travels 97 km (60 miles) or longer above a huge unfrozen lake. The Lake-effect snowfall makes Erie and Buffalo the thirteenth and eleventh snowiest places in the whole United States respectively, in accordance with the information gathered from the nationwide climatic information center.