It's Official - Lake Superior Hits New Record High Water Temp - Lakewide Surface Average 68.3F.

Duluth, Minn. — On another muggy August afternoon in Duluth, the Park Point city beach is again packed. Clara Goellner is one of the three life guards trying to keep an eye on the mob of teens and children splashing away in water that's typically bone-chilling.

But this year, the normally uncomfortably cool surface waters of Lake Superior aren't so cold, as summer heat is showing up in one of the Minnesota's colder places. Experts say the lake's surface temperatures set a new record high this week -- and the entire lake likely is warmer than ever recorded. "It's extremely warm," Goellner said. "It's about 70 every day -- really big crowds, even on weekdays."

At Park Point, it's not just little kids in the water. A squad of teenaged cheerleaders practices lifts hip-deep in the water.
This is Goellner's third year guarding the beach, and she knows warm water isn't the norm. "Normally you have to wait until the wind is in the right direction for the warm water to be coming in, and you have to wait until August, 'cus, it takes that long for the lake to warm up," she said. "But now it's been really warm even in July."

On Tuesday, the waters atop Lake Superior reached the highest temperature ever recorded. The lake-wide average surface temperature hit 68.3 degrees. The average for Aug. 10 is just 55 degrees.

EDIT

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/08/12/warm-lake-superior/

one event was repelling down the clifts over Lake Superior and climbing back up. scary stuff.

but we could not go near the water's edge without a second person with us because:

THE WATER WAS SO COLD YOU COULD LOSE THE USE OF YOUR LIMBS IN SECONDS and would need help in getting out of the water.

we are so screwed.