A new study reveals the Great Lakes have entered a new climate era marked by more extreme heat waves and cold spells. Heat wave intensity tripled in Lake Superior, while cold spell intensity ...

Storms knocked power for thousands around Great Lakes region, with more tornado risk coming. Storms are expected in the Ohio, Tennessee and Mid-Mississippi valleys, where there are threats of ...

Candy wrappers. Cigarette butts. Chip bags. The litter you see on the side of the street doesn’t just present a public nuisance where it’s dropped. It’s one of the more serious emerging ...

The Great Lakes remain well below comfortable — or even safe — swimming temperatures, according to water temperature monitoring. Swimming is most comfortable in lake waters at about 70 degrees ...

In 2002, the Great Lakes basin had just 11.9% ice coverage, NOAA said. In 2012, Lake Superior had 8.5% coverage. In 2002, Lake Michigan had 12.4% coverage.

As of March 16, average ice cover across the lakes was roughly 13.5%. Lake Superior was at 9.2%, and Lake Michigan was at 10.7%.

The process forming the Great Lakes began millions of years ago but wasn't completed until the last ice age, 20,000 years ago. The northern shore of Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada.

Lake Michigan was the second-coldest of the five Great Lakes with an average of 51.1 degrees. Lake Ontario posted a high reading of 54.3 degrees, and Lake Huron's high was 63.5 degrees in Saginaw Bay.

Federal Great Lakes science, data collection and monitoring has been scaled back amid firings and budget cuts since President Donald Trump returned to office in January. That's just the start.

Commercial fishing on the Great Lakes was built on lake whitefish, but for the past two decades, that species has been on the decline. It's now on the brink of collapse in parts of two of the lakes.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s sea lamprey program, for example, can begin rehiring U.S. federal workers to control the invasive species, which can wreak havoc on other fish.