WATCH: Western Lake Erie Fills Back Up after Seiche Pushes Water East

There's no questioning the power of mother nature, and if the past week of winter storms has been any indication, she can do amazing things with water.

Case and point, Lake Erie, which has been dumping nearly 80 inches of Lake Effect Snow on Buffalo, NY, was subject to one of its oddest features last week, and we got to see the results of it on Wednesday in Michigan.

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What is a Seiche

First some context, what Lake Erie experienced this past week is what's called a Seiche. We've talked about them before on Lake Michigan, but Lake Erie is especially susceptible to them because of the direction it lays, and how shallow it is.

Essentially, strong winds, and storm fronts will "carry" the water, and push Lake Erie to the east. Similar to sloshing in a bathtub, the majority of the water goes to one end of the "tub" as a result.

But once that water reaches its peak, it will "slosh" back, and what results is a strange phenomenon on the western banks of the Lake. Essentially, the water disappears on its western-most shores, then returns suddenly as the water "sloshes" back west.

What you get, is equivalent to what some see during hurricanes as a "storm surge," but much smaller, and less impactful to the land beyond the typical shoreline.

The Water Returns

Meteorologist Chris Vickers of WTOL in Toledo, Ohio, filmed this return of the water earlier this week, and it is impressive.

"SO COOL! Many asked after Lake Erie plunged nearly 9 feet emptying parts of western Lake Erie this past weekend, 'How quickly did it come back?' Take a look, this video caught the action."

Vickers said the video, captured by Jordan Howard, shows Lake Erie's water returning similar to a small flash flood, and levels in the lake rose three feet in just two hours.

This is pretty amazing, and also another sign of just how incredibly powerful these recent winter storms have been in the Great Lakes area.