For years, the word “seiche” wasn’t well-known to anyone outside of the fishing, diving and shipping industries.
That word seems to be getting more traction and attention as the calendar turns to 2026, with at least two major seiches taking place in the Western Basin of Lake Erie in the past few weeks.
Of course, if you have an interest in shoreline and erosion like Leamington resident Wayne King, you’d know all about the wind-propelled phenomenon.
King was out — as expected — on Monday, December 29 looking for signs of the latest seiche along the eastern Leamington (and Wheatley) shoreline.
“We went out and took pictures around 9 am on Monday and I’ve not seen the lake that low in a long time,” he said. “By 1 pm, the water levels had risen by eight-to-ten inches.”
Monday’s winds from the southwest provided the power to create the right setting for the phenomenon, and by Tuesday things had calmed down enough for the lake bottom to be mostly restored.
Seiches aren’t new and Lake Erie has a reputation for being “in-seiche-able” when it comes to the occurrences.
So, what is a seiche?
A seiche (pronounced saysh) happens when a force like the wind pushes water from one end of a body of water to the other. When the wind stops, the water rebounds and then continues to oscillate back and forth as it settles, which can last hours or days. The oscillation of a standing wave is a seiche. Think of water in a bathtub as an example on a smaller scale. As you swish water from one end to the other, the depth rises and falls.
What residents see at this end of the lake is the complete opposite of what is happening at the other end. In 1844, a 22-foot seiche breached a 14-foot sea wall in Buffalo, killing 78 people.
Last week’s seiche was estimated to have increased the water levels at the eastern end of the lake well over eight feet, while levels at this end dropped dramatically, exposing lake bottom along the shoreline — especially in parts of Ohio and Michigan.
Over here, fishing tugs in both Kingsville and Wheatley harbours appeared to sit on the bottom of normally deep harbours.
Along Leamington’s eastern shoreline last Monday, Wayne King went back to re-explore the location of an old crane that fell into the lake near Hillman Marsh in 1934. When snorkelling in 2023, King came across the remnants of the crane on the lake bottom, and provided a story and photos for the Southpoint Sun.
Last week — even for a short time — the crane, which is usually three-to-four feet underwater, was fully exposed and King was able to walk up to it and take more photos.
“Some of the crane parts, a car frame, steel wheels, numerous miscellaneous pipes, concrete slabs and old building foundations were visible,” he said. “Some I had never seen before.”
At Wheatley Harbour, King took some photos where several boats appeared to be touching bottom. He also stopped at the old mouth of Hillman Marsh, where he saw something he hadn’t seen in a long time — the remnants of the old wooden breakwall that lined the original drainage opening for the Hillman Marsh to Lake Erie that has probably not been seen for 50 years or so.
The December 29 seiche provided plenty of photo opportunities if you were in the right place at the right time. By Tuesday, lake levels had risen enough to eliminate those opportunities.
In late November, another considerable seiche provided Kingsville’s Matt Vermette an up-close-and-personal look at a schooner wreck sitting on the bottom of the lake just off Lakeside Park in Kingsville, with the story appearing in the Sun on December 3.
The remnants of a 1930s crane that has been at the bottom of Lake Erie for almost 100 years, exposed to the elements.
Photo courtesy of Wayne King
