• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print

MILWAUKEE - There could be dangerous rip-currents on Lake Michigan. It's all because of Wednesday's storms. We've all probably heard of severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings, but a seiche warning is a lot more unusual. “No, I’ve never heard of that,” one person along the lakefront said Thursday. “A seiche? I don't even know what that is. No I haven't,” another person said. It's a term most people have never heard of, but a seiche is like a mini-tsunami that causes rapid rises and falls in water levels. It all goes back to Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Huge thunderstorms with 80, 90, 100 mile per hour straight line winds rolled over Lake Michigan and just like getting out of a bathtub or jumping in a pool, those winds cause an enormous sloshing of the water. So on Thursday when the National Weather Service in Chicago issued a seiche warning for its Lake Michigan shoreline, mentioning the waters up to Milwaukee, people in the Windy City were forced to evacuate many beaches and the call went out for all boats to return to dock. This particular situation wasn't as severe as expected, but the phenomena can be dangerous and even deadly. Eight people were killed by a seiche back in 1954. That's why those charged with managing our beaches also take this seriously. ‘Any time you're around water I think people need to take it seriously. That's why it's so nice the lifeguards are back at Bradford Beach because we can react to whatever's going on out there,” Milwaukee County Parks Director Sue Black said.