Lake Michigan’s Waterspout Season Explained

Can you feel it? Fall is in the air!

Aside from seasonal fall flavors returning to store shelves and Spirit Halloween stores popping up across Michigan, there's another subtle sign that autumn is near:

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It's officially waterspout season in Michigan!

It turns out the changing color of the leaves is just one sign of the weather shift here in Michigan. A few weeks ago WWMT meteorologist Jeff Porter gave a heads up headed into an unseasonably cool weekend in West Michigan that conditions were just right for waterspouts to form over the lake:

A much cooler airmass arrives in West Michigan this weekend. From Sunday through the early part of next week, highs won't be too far from 70 degrees. The convergence of cool air over the much warmer surface of Lake Michigan is the key ingredient in the formation of a waterspout.

Turns out there's a "waterspout season" in Michigan, the period when waterspouts are more likely than ever to pop up over Lake Michigan. Did you already know that?

Have you ever seen a waterspout over the lake?

And it's not just Lake Michigan, in fact it's common to see waterspouts over any of the five Great Lakes during this time. As Porter explains,

The large temperature difference between the ambient air and our Great Lakes, relatively moist air, and light winds are all helpful in the formation of waterspouts....common in the Great Lakes in August, September, and October.

Oddly, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" has been going mildly viral on Tiktok for some reason. However, that tragedy took place November 10, 1975 on Lake Superior. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary.