I like to emphasize to people that when you swim in Lake Michigan, you are not really swimming in a “lake” per se. Due to it’s enormous size and water volume, Lake Michigan is actually an inland sea.
In fact, the Great Lakes are so massive that they have actually spawned cyclonic storms very similar to hurricanes.
In September of 1996, an extremely powerful storm system formed over the Great Lakes that, when viewed by satellite imagery, strongly resembled a hurricane complete with wide rotating bands and an eye-like center:
(click image for full size)
Nicknamed Hurricane Huron, this cyclone storm produced winds gusting up to 73 mph – just slightly below the Glossary of Weather and Climate’s criteria for being deemed an official hurricane.
So remember – although we refer to Lake Michigan as a lake, it’s nothing at all like the one at summer camp!