Steve McComas

The 2024 spring/summer started out wet and hot. Above-average precipitation from April to June, along with higher-than-average temperatures through August were recorded. Then the rain spigot was turned off in September and October, and lake levels started dropping but the days were still warm.

Here’s a mystery involving a single lake with two plant conditions.
Pike Lake in Scott County, Minn., presented a huge surprise during the summer of 2024. It’s a 50-acre lake with two basins separated by a shallow channel. Prior to my field work there, I didn’t know much about the lake.

What a contrast between the summers of 2023 and 2024 in Minnesota!
Last year, there was a heavy snowpack followed by summertime drought conditions. This year, there was a light snowpack followed by spring and summer rains that produced flooding conditions. Rainfall totals at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport for the April-June period in 2023 totaled 5 inches. For the same time period in 2024, rainfall totaled 17 inches. Rainfall and run-off have increased lake levels this summer, but there are other lake issues as well.

In the past month, I’ve been tracking the notorious curlyleaf pondweed. Under optimal conditions, it can produce more than 700 stems per square meter (spacing of one stem every 2 inches). This presents not only a recreational hindrance, but when the stem density is that high, fish can barely swim through that dense jungle. It’s poor fish habitat.

Temperature is a regulator regarding the distribution and abundance of aquatic plants and fish in lakes.
With that in mind, consider that this winter has been super mild, but over the years, weird winters or summers raised the question: Is this a blip or a trend? It takes a few years to distinguish a blip from a trend.