Syracuse, N.Y. -- The weather for the last week of summer in Upstate New York is perfect for people -- and for toxic algae.
Blooms of blue-green algae tend to peak this time of year, especially when the weather is warm, sunny and calm, which is exactly what’s forecast through at least Sunday. Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 70s and even the mid 80s by the weekend, with sunny skies.
“If the wind stays down, it should be good conditions for the blooms,” said Gregory Boyer, a chemistry professor who runs an algae testing lab at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in Syracuse.
The big concern is Skaneateles Lake, the source of Syracuse’s unfiltered drinking water. Toxins from a large algae bloom in September 2017 infiltrated the city’s pair of intake pipes on the lake, prompting the addition of extra chlorine. City and state officials said none of the toxins, called microcystins, found their way into anyone’s tap water.
Water quality tests through Sept. 9 have found no microcystins in the pipes despite numerous outbreaks of algae at the north end of the lake, where the pipes are located.
Boyer said Skaneateles Lake has had about seven blooms of algae, which are actually a form of bacteria called cyanobacteria. That’s not surprising, given that Upstate New York had a wet spring, which tends to wash into the lake the nutrients that algae thrive on, particularly phosphorus.
This summer’s blooms haven’t grown large enough to cause problems, Boyer said, because the wind has been strong enough to break them up.
"It’s been quite windy,” he said. “The blooms would last for about a day and then go away because the wind picked up and disrupted them.”
There’s not much wind expected this week, though. The National Weather Service’s hourly forecast predicts that wind speeds won’t exceed 7 mph until at least Monday afternoon, when strong gusts could exceed 20 mph.
Boyer said there’s no rule of thumb for what wind speed will break up algae blooms. It depends in part on the orientation of the lake and the direction of the wind. If the wind runs in the direction of the length of the lake, it will break up algae blooms better than if the wind blows across the lake.
The Finger Lakes, including Skaneateles, are narrow and lie primarily north to south. That means winds from south will disturb the lake surface more than winds from the west. The forecast calls for winds from both directions over the next few days.
READ MORE
Syracuse said Skaneateles Lake pipes were too deep for algae. They weren’t
Rainy spring could create more toxic algae blooms in Upstate NY
The end of summer in Upstate NY will feel a lot like, well, summer