1

NOAA Technical Memorandum ERL GLERL-93

LAKE HURON WATER TEMPERATURE DATA

BAY CITY, MICHIGAN 1946-1993

Michael J. McCormick

Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

Ann Arbor, Michigan

August 1996

UNITED STATES

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Mickey Kantor

Secretary

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND

ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

D. James Baker

Under Secretary for Oceans

and Atmosphere/Administrator

Environmental Research

Laboratories

James L. Rasmussen

Director

NAT OI NAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRAT OI N

U.S.DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
2

NOTICE

Mention of a commercial company or product does not constitute an endorsement

by the NOAA Environmental Research Laboratories. Use of information from

this publication concerning proprietary products or the tests of such products for

publicity or advertising purposes is not authorized. This is GLERL Contribution

No. 1006. NTIS# PB96-202437/XAB.
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NOAA Technical Memorandum ERL GLERL-93

LAKE HURON WATER TEMPERATURE DATA

BAY CITY, MICHIGAN 1946-1993

Michael J. McCormick

Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

2205 Commonwealth Blvd.

Ann Arbor, MI 48105

internet address: mccormick@glerl.noaa.gov

1. INTRODUCTION

Water temperature data from several sites around the Great Lakes were obtained as part of a study to

determine if any regional climatic changes or trends could be detected based upon these data sets. The

study was partially supported by the NOAA Office of Global Programs. Site selection was based upon

both location and reasonable data access.

This technical memorandum contains data for Bay City, Michigan from 1946-1993. Bay City water

temperature data were provided by Mr. John DeKam, superintendent of the Bay City water plant. All

data were hand entered into a computer compatible format.

Data are available from 1946 to November 1993. However, no data are available for the

following years: 1956-1966, and 1968. Prior to 1951 the water intake depth was 5 feet, and the

crib was located at 43o

 40.39'; 83o 53.86'. After 1951 the intake crib was moved to 43o 43.06'; 83o 54.06',

and the water intake depth was lowered to 14 feet. The daily temperatures are based upon three readings

taken every 8 hours. A certified thermometer was used for all readings since September 1979; I do not

know if this is true for the entire data set.

The data are plotted and shown in the accompanying figures. All data were checked for consistency

prior to the final plotting. As a result, data for May 1988 was deleted and two other obvious errors were

corrected. All missing data are denoted by -999.

Data files are identified as TM093Dxx.dat where xx identifies the data year. Data are organized into

four columns: month, day, year, and temperature. Although the data are reported to the nearest 0.1oC, a

more reasonable estimate of their accuracy is 0.5o

C given all the uncertainties with the raw data.

All data are available in a simple ASCII format. The data files are available on our WWW site or

from our anonymous FTP site. From the GLERL home page (www.glerl.noaa.gov), select FTP server or

point your browser to: ftp://ftp.glerl.noaa.gov/publications/tech_reports/GLERL-93.

Although great care has been used in checking these data, mistakes may still be present. If errors are

found, please contact the author at mccormick@glerl.noaa.gov.
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50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 305

Bay City, Michigan 1948

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 181

Bay City, Michigan 1949

Julian Day
5

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1950

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 245

Bay City, Michigan 1951

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 305

Bay City, Michigan 1952

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 335

Bay City, Michigan 1953

Julian Day
6

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1954

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 181

Bay City, Michigan 1955

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 269

Bay City, Michigan 1967

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1969

Julian Day
7

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1970

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 360

Bay City, Michigan 1971

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 352

Bay City, Michigan 1972

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 363

Bay City, Michigan 1973

Julian Day
8

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 358

Bay City, Michigan 1974

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 332

Bay City, Michigan 1975

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 196

Bay City, Michigan 1976

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 338

Bay City, Michigan 1977

Julian Day
9

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 357

Bay City, Michigan 1978

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 269

Bay City, Michigan 1979

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 363

Bay City, Michigan 1980

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1981

Julian Day
10

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1982

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 364

Bay City, Michigan 1983

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 366

Bay City, Michigan 1984

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1985

Julian Day
11

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1986

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1987

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 335

Bay City, Michigan 1988

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1989

Julian Day
12

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1990

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 365

Bay City, Michigan 1991

Julian Day

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 366

Bay City, Michigan 1992

50 100 150 200 250 300 350

0

10

20

30

Water Temperature (C)

Days of data = 334

Bay City, Michigan 1993

Julian Day