Lake Michigan drownings run high as summer ends

There's not much good news coming out of the Lake Michigan shoreline this swimming season as it's just been story after story of drownings or rescues or a combination of both all summer long this year. In fact, we're unfortunately on pace to surpass last year's record.

And Lake Michigan has always been a bigger problem than all of the other great lakes combined. Thanks to the higher population around Lake Michigan and above average air and water temps over the past couple of years, many more people are heading to the lake to cool off, leading to more incidents. Since 2002, there have been more than 400 reported incidents in Lake Michigan. That blows away all other lakes by a lot. And the last couple of years have been the worst.

2018 was a record year for great lakes drownings with 117. By this time last year, there were 27 Lake Michigan drownings. This year, there have been 75 drownings around all the great lakes and 36 of those have been in that body of water behind me. So, please continue to take these red flag days seriously and stay out of the water. Even when yellow flags are flying, rip currents and high waves are still out here.