Why Is Michigan Water So... Different? (No Sharks, No Salt, and "Lake-Effect" Everything)

Newcomers and visitors ask versions of this all the time: Wait, the Great Lakes don’t have salt? You can drink the water? Why is the snow so insane on one side of the state? Let’s clear up the cluster of water questions at once.

First, the Great Lakes are freshwater — no salt. That means no ocean tides to speak of, no sharks, no jellyfish, and water you could (with treatment) drink; in fact, the lakes supply drinking water to tens of millions of people. Michiganders are fiercely proud that you can swim at a Lake Michigan beach with sandy dunes and clear water and not taste salt or worry about ocean predators. (The lakes do have their own dangers — powerful rip currents and sudden cold can be deadly, so they demand respect — but the shark fears are unfounded.)

Second, “lake-effect snow,” the phrase you’ll hear all winter. Here’s the plain mechanism: when cold winter air blows across the relatively warmer, open water of a Great Lake, it picks up moisture, and then dumps that moisture as heavy snow the moment it reaches land on the far shore. Because Michigan’s prevailing winds blow west-to-east across Lake Michigan, the west side of the state (and the U.P.) gets buried in lake-effect snow, while areas not downwind of a lake get far less. It’s why two towns the same distance north can have wildly different snow totals — one’s in the “snow belt” and one isn’t.

Third, the lakes basically air-condition the state in summer and insulate it in fall. The water warms slowly and cools slowly, which is exactly why the strip of land along Lake Michigan’s eastern shore is perfect fruit-growing country — the lake protects the cherry and apple blossoms from late frosts. The same water that buries the west side in snow also gives Michigan its cherries, wine, and peaches.