There was an issue with precipitation last winter. The upper Great Lakes as well as our area had lower than average rain and snow. Supposedly there is also an old agreement in the Chicago area where millions of gallons of water are diverted from the lake every day. Originally it was to wash the sewage away from the city. There was also an issue with warm temps and lack of lake ice last winter which resulted in above normal evaporation. Finally, it was a warm and dry summer which also supposedly increased evaporation.

All that said, the current "pool level" as shown by the Army Corp is only something like 3/10ths of an inch less than the average pool level. Sooooo, I guess the deal is we all got used to higher than average water level over the last dozen or so years. Docks were built, marinas built, people like me bought something other than a shoal draft keel for the first time in their lives and everything was all good......until this year.

FYI, the marinas on both sides of our club started turning away any new business if your draft was 5' or more.