Research team warns against overlooking Great Lakes’ currents

Although it can be easy to overlook their seemingly calm waters, the Great Lakes have a long history of dangerous currents. UW-Madison professor Chin Wu is taking a proactive approach to curb future accidents. Photo: National Weather Service The history of the Great Lakes is one of people who underestimate their destructive power, often with tragic results. From two massive waves that smashed into Chicago's harbors in 1954 to a rip current that drowned a young swimmer in Port Washington, Wisconsin, in 2012, Lake Michigan and its neighbors have a track record of catching people off guard with dangerous currents. People still commonly refer to such events with terms like "sneaky waves," as if these incidents were aberrations that couldn't have been helped or anticipated. Chin Wu isn't having it, because such incidents are, in fact, a long-established part of the lakes' behavior. "I say, 'sneaky waves?' These sneaker waves appear without warning, often surging high up on the beach with deadly force and creating rip currents, " says Wu, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.