Summer 2021 Algal Bloom Still Expected To Be Mild For Western Lake Erie

"Despite searing heat and heavy showers at various times this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is sticking to its prediction that western Lake Erie’s algal bloom this summer will be as small as last year’s and relatively mild overall.

“The bloom will be similar in size to 2020, making this the first time in more than a dozen years that relatively mild blooms will have occurred in consecutive summers,” NOAA said in a bulletin released Wednesday after the conclusion of an annual event in which several government and university researchers explained the science behind the forecast.

The forecast is an ensemble of work that includes data collected and analyzed by NOAA and its partner universities in the western Lake Erie region, including Heidelberg University’s National Center for Water Quality Research, which has been tracking algae-forming phosphorus in water samples since 1974. Heidelberg’s sampling set is the Great Lakes region’s longest continuing set of such data."

Tom Henry reports for the Toledo Blade June 30, 2021.

Source: Toledo Blade, 07/01/2021