Lake Superior Wind Ask Dave a weather question

Dave Thurlow, Host

 
Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. Producer James Jones recently visited Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

JJ: "Thirteen years ago I took my first hike to the big Lake, in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. My friends and I had a long, hard walk ahead that crisp autumn day, but as the silence of the forest embraced us we fell into a contented trance that made the miles pass quickly.

A good distance into the woods I started to hear a strange sound breaking through the stillness. At first I thought it was blood rushing past my eardrums. But as we walked on the noise grew louder, building into an intense roar that sounded like a distant jet.

That couldn't be the wind, I thought, standing in a forest without a single leaf quivering. But it was the wind: A stiff north breeze slamming into the dense woods that lined a shore still miles away. It was a sound full of energy and life: one that compelled us to quicken our pace, to discover the source, to press on to Superior.

I've been intrigued by that mysterious roar ever since, so when I recently returned to the Lake I asked a ranger if the locals had a name for that distant, lakeside wind. "Not that I know of," he said, "but the Ojibway might be able to help you." An Ojibway Indian teacher told me yes, there is a word for what I heard: deh-bi-weh eh-gi-ma, which means any sound made by the water spirit that can't easily be explained.

This time I took my wife to the Lakeshore. And she heard deh-bi-weh eh-gi-ma for the first time; a far away but strong voice howling through a still night. A voice that made her eager to break out of the forest, and on to the distant shore."

Jim Jones is an independent producer from Washinton, DC. Our show is underwritten by Subaru with major support provided by the National Science Foundation.