Five lakes. One honest number each.
Lake Erie is the bathtub at 63 °F, Lake Superior stays cool at 56, and Lake Michigan runs from 52 to 61 °F depending on the shore. Readings from 67 buoys, tide stations and beach sensors, updated every three hours.
The lakes, right now
Why the same lake can be 61 and 52
Offshore winds push the warm surface layer away from the shore and pull up deep water. Atwater Park, WI on Lake Michigan reads 52 °F today while Southern Lake Michigan Spotter, on the same lake, sits at 61. Check the buoy nearest to your beach, not the lake average.
Measured, never modeled
NOAA's National Data Buoy Center runs the offshore buoys, NOAA CO-OPS the tide and water-level stations at the harbors, the Great Lakes Observing System the nearshore monitors, and the Chicago Park District its beach sensors. The EPA rates the beaches. BrrChecker reads them every three hours and shows the time of every measurement.
Erie peaks first and cools first. Michigan and Huron hold their warmth into mid-September on the eastern shores. Superior is for the brave in any month. The app keeps the readings all winter, which is when the cold-plunge crowd shows up.
By lake, with today's reading
Lake Erie 22 stations
Lake Michigan 23 stations
Lake Huron 10 stations
Lake Ontario 7 stations
5 lakes with their own page
Every measured water has a page with all stations, trend and neighbours. The 5 with the most stations:
Which Great Lake is the warmest right now?
Right now the warmest measured value comes from Lake Erie (Cleveland DO) at 63 °F. Erie is usually the warmest of the five (it is the shallowest), Superior the coldest.
Why is Lake Superior so cold?
It is the largest and deepest of the Great Lakes — a huge heat sink that barely warms even in high summer. Many buoys stay below 20°C all year.
How fresh are these values?
The NOAA buoys report continuously; this page shows the freshest buoy per lake with its measurement time, plus a 7-day trend.
Check first, then swim.
Every Great Lakes station with history, BrrScore and alerts, free in the app.
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