Correction: Corrected September 17, 2026: the water-level paragraph now reports the archived NOAA station observations and their limits. Unsupported navigation implications were withdrawn. NOAA measurement context.
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The Stewart J. Cort left the SMET coal dock in Duluth-Superior on the evening of July 31, bound first for fuel and then for the BNSF facility to load ore. The Cort had been tied at SMET for several weeks while crews worked through propulsion repairs.
That is not a routine layover. The Cort is the longest vessel in the American fleet, and propulsion work on a hull that size pulls real tonnage out of the rotation for as long as the job takes. When she finally cleared the dock and pointed toward the fuel pier, it was the most consequential movement on the western lake in days.
The most recent confirmed data puts the Cort at BNSF to load ore; where she is this Monday morning is not confirmed in available reports, but a loaded Cort heading down Superior is what a watcher at the Sault should be tracking. Tonight's forecast adds one more reason to watch that track: a trough averaging 29.7 to 29.8 inches is moving over Superior from the west, pushing conditions above the current two-foot sea state.
Dorothy Ann and her consort Pathfinder arrived at Amrize in Marblehead to load limestone, then delivered to Allied Road Products in Cleveland the same day, per the Saturday, August 1 report. They had been anchored in Lake Erie earlier in the week before the Marblehead berth opened.
Baie Comeau and Lee A. Tregurtha both arrived at Toledo on Saturday, the first going to CSX and the Tregurtha to Ironville. Algonova was at George Gradel and Manitowoc at CSX the same day, a full south-Erie roster.
Algoma Innovator was working a salt discharge at Buffalo as of Saturday's report. Salt unloads slowly; anyone driving east has a reasonable chance of finding her still at the wall.
Archived NOAA station observations: Lake Superior, Sault Ste. Marie (NOAA station 9076027): 1.782 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Michigan, Chicago (NOAA station 9087031): 2.198 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Huron, Harbor Beach, MI (NOAA station 9075002): 2.375 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Erie, Cleveland (NOAA station 9063053): 3.31 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY (NOAA station 9052030): 3.665 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-08-02 23:54 local standard time. These are individual gauge readings, not lake-wide averages or channel depths. They do not establish vessel clearance, cargo limits or comparative navigability.
High pressure holds Erie, Michigan, and most of Huron quiet today: one-foot waves on Erie and Michigan, two feet on Huron. Ontario is the rough corner at three feet under a departing low. Superior is the watch: a 29.7 to 29.8 inch trough approaches from the west and moves over the lake tonight. Anything on a western or central Superior track should have tonight's updated forecast in hand before casting off.
Nine U.S. Great Lakes ports earned the Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Award from the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation last week, recognized for collectively moving more than four million metric tons of international freight through the Seaway in 2025, equal to 27 percent of all international cargo on the lakes that year. The announcement came out of Washington on July 31. The award is named for a former GLS administrator and has been given annually since the Seaway era; a record collective tonnage figure for American ports is the kind of number that takes a full season to build and one press release to mark.