A diver swims over the two-masted schooner Walter B. Allen, which sank in Lake Michigan 1880.
Credit: Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society

Off the lakeshore in Wisconsin, dozens of ships lie under the surface. In October 2015, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced a new national marine sanctuary. In June 2021, the NOAA officially designated the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Michigan. Marine sanctuaries are protected waters, habitats, and archeological sites. In this case, NOAA’s sanctuary protects archeological, cultural, historic, and prehistoric artifacts, along with all historic shipwreck sites that served an important role in maritime heritage. The NOAA and the state of Wisconsin are co-managing the sanctuary.

The area is 726 square nautical miles (962 square miles or 2,492 square kilometers) along the coasts of Manitowoc, Port Washington, Sheboygan, and Two Rivers. The sanctuary protects 36 known shipwrecks. Of those, 21 are in the National Register of Historic Places. Because of Lake Michigan’s cold temperature and lack of salt, these shipwrecks are preserved with more integrity than usual, and some remain mostly intact. Researchers believe there are up to 59 shipwrecks in the sanctuary. Wisconsin spent three decades preserving historic maritime sites against human and natural activities. The sanctuary provides opportunities for archeological preservation, research, and education.

The shipwrecks have historical significance. They include the two oldest known shipwrecks in Wisconsin. From the 1800’s through the 1900’s, the Great Lakes were used to ship such goods as coal, grain, and manufactured goods. Hundreds of thousands of settlers used the lakes to move to the Midwest and West of the United States. Midwestern cities, farms, and industries grew as a result.

January 10, 2013

The year 2012 was the hottest on record for the contiguous United States, with an average temperature of 55.3 °F (12.9 °C), which eclipsed 1998, the previous record holder, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced this week. Temperature variations between years are usually measured in just fractions of a degree; 2012, however, was 1 full degree Fahrenheit (0.56 Celsius degree) warmer than the previous record temperature, set in 1998. In fact, the entire range between the coldest year on record, which occurred in 1917, and the previous warmest year on record, 1998, was just 4.2 Fahrenheit (2.4 Celsius) degrees.

The average 2012 springtime temperature in the lower 48 states was so far above the 20th century average–5.2 Fahrenheit (2.9 Celsius) degrees–that it set a record for the largest temperature departure for any season on record. July 2012, with an average temperature that was 3.6 Fahrenheit (2 Celsius) degrees above average, was the hottest month ever recorded in the contiguous United States.

Shades of red on the map indicate temperatures up to 8 Fahrenheit degrees warmer than average. Shades of blue indicate temperatures up to 8 Fahrenheit degrees cooler than average. The darker the color, the larger the difference from average temperature. (NOAA Climate.gov)

According to an unofficial count maintained by the Weather Channel, 34,008 new daily high records were set at weather stations in the United States in 2012, compared with only 6,664 new daily record lows. Fully 61 percent of the nation was engulfed in drought in 2012. In addition, with 11 natural disasters that exceeded a $1-billion damage threshold, 2012 turned out to be the second-worst year on record on the Climate Extremes Index, surpassed, again, only by 1998.

“Climate change has had a role in this [record],” noted Jake Crouch, a climate scientist at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Crouch stated his belief that it is unlikely such a record would have occurred without the long-term warming trend caused in large part by emissions of greenhouse gases.

Additional World Book articles:

• Climate
• National Weather Service
• Weather
• Weather 1998 (a Back in Time article)

June 6, 2012

After record numbers of tornadoes wreaked widespread devastation in 2011, and above-average numbers of tornadoes marked the early months of 2012, meteorologists finally have some good news. For the first time in seven years, the month of May has passed without a single tornado fatality in the United States. The month’s numbers stand in stark contrast to those of May 2011, which recorded 178 fatalities.

Researchers at NOAA say favorable atmospheric conditions led to a smaller-than-average number of tornadoes in May 2012. (© Byron Turk, Center for Severe Weather Research)

Ordinarily, May represents peak tornado activity in the United States, with an average expectation of about 300 tornadoes, according to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). May 2011 experienced a total of 326 tornadoes, compared with this year’s preliminary tornado count of 122 for the month. If the numbers are confirmed, the count may be the lowest for any May since 1954.

Why were skies so quiet during May? A lack of wind shear, a condition in which wind speeds and directions change rapidly over a short distance, may be one reason. Wind shear is a key ingredient for tornado formation, and abundant wind shear conditions helped lead to the 758 tornadoes that tore across the United States in April 2011. Another factor may be the jet stream, a band of fast-moving air currents at high altitudes. Typically, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico helps fuel tornadoes throughout Tornado Alley, a region that stretches across the Midwestern, Plains, and Southern states, especially Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. In 2012, the jet stream has been farther north, leading to drier air on the southern side of the current and fewer tornadic storms.

Additional World Book articles:

• Safety (During a tornado)
• Weather 2011 (a Back in Time article)

March 16, 2012

Spring weather has come early to the United States, according to meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On March 14, 400 locations around the United States reported record highs. Even the 68 °F (20 °C) temperature at Duluth, Minnesota, which was far below the 80 °F (27 °C) reported in Miami, Houston, and Chicago, was 35 Farhrenheit degrees (19 Centigrade degrees) above average.

Spring 2012 is following the fourth-warmest U.S. winter since record keeping began in 1895. Unseasonably warm temperatures have resulted in such welcome developments as lower natural gas heating costs for consumers, as well as concerns among farmers that spring frosts may damage crops that produce buds this early.

Because of the early arrival of spring in the United States, the famous cherry blossoms that tourists flock to the nation's capital to see are expected to bloom early. (Courtesy Dean Brown from Nancy Palmer)

The winter of 2012, which meteorologists define as the period from Dec. 1, 2011, to Feb. 29, 2012, brought no major snowstorms to the United States. Snow cover in early March, as photographed by NASA’s Terra Earth observing satellite, was much spottier and less thick than the snow cover recorded for the same time in 2011.

The less extensive snow cover, according to NOAA scientists, has lowered the risk of spring flooding. For the first time in four years, no area in the United States was expected to experience major spring flooding, according to an agency report released on March 15. At this time in 2011, half the country was at above-average risk of flooding.

According to meteorologists, the warm spring weather may be the result of two climate patterns in effect in 2012. One is a La Nina, during which cooler-than-normal water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean produce warmer-than-normal temperatures and drier conditions in much of the United States. A strong La Nina has been in effect throughout 2011 and is just beginning to dissipate. Another weather pattern affecting U.S. climate is the Arctic Oscillation (AO). That phenomenon, in which changes in air pressure affect the circulation of warm and cold air masses in the upper atmosphere, has been bottling up cold Arctic air in regions around the North Pole.

Will the warm weather continue? NOAA forecasters indicate that temperatures for the rest of March, April, and May will probably be about one Fahrenheit degree (0.6 Centigrade degree) above normal. Nevertheless, one or two extreme temperature fluctuations during that period remain possible.

Additional World Book articles:

• Global warming
• Ocean (How the ocean moves)