How long does it take Detroit River water to reach the Atlantic Ocean?

[Al Publican]

Disregarding factor of wind and locks, how long would it take a rubber ball in the Detroit River to reach Anticosti Island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River?
I did a rough calculation of using Detroit to Havre-Saint-Pierre, Quebec across the mouth of the St. Lawrence, some 1300 road miles to come up with around four weeks based on water flow averaging 2 mph.
Curious if anyone has seen a hydrology stuff in this regard. [[This topic came up a couple of times when I lived in Detroit.)

[canuck]

Your guess is as good as mine. I'll take your calculations to be pretty plausible. Only problem is I can’t ascertain which drops come from Detroit in the mix.

[Jimaz]

It really is an interesting question though. It would be hard to believe that the answer isn't already known. I imagine the bean counters for shipping companies would need that information.

All I know is that surface water travels fastest over the deepest part of a river, slower toward the banks.

Google finds so much similar information that it's hard to winnow it down to this specific question.

Maybe a reference librarian would help.

[Al Publican]

Say, a rubber ball that is not influenced by wind or the locks at Welland and Montreal.

[Canadian Visitor]

Disregarding factor of wind and locks, how long would it take a rubber ball in the Detroit River to reach Anticosti Island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River?
I did a rough calculation of using Detroit to Havre-Saint-Pierre, Quebec across the mouth of the St. Lawrence, some 1300 road miles to come up with around four weeks based on water flow averaging 2 mph.
Curious if anyone has seen a hydrology stuff in this regard. [[This topic came up a couple of times when I lived in Detroit.)

2-3 years is amount of time required for water to make it from the Detroit River to the Atlantic Ocean.

[ABetterDetroit]

I remember learning in grade school geography the ‘flush rate’ of Lake Erie being 2 years. Seems the terminology has changed somewhat but here it’s listed as still close to that at 2.6 years. I guess it depends on if you want to count all of the water or just some of it… Next up is Ontario at 6 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_retention_time

[JBMcB]

Depends on how far back the waterways you count.

After we had a few years of above-average snowfall, roughly 10 years ago, we had a few years of elevated lake levels that followed, roughly two years afterwards.

I read in a news article around that time that it takes between one and two years for the melted snow to work it's way through streams, ponds, swales, rivers and inland lakes, before finally dropping into the lakes enough to raise them significantly.

This covers the entire US great lakes region - Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, etc.. but also stretches up through Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec.

[Canadian Visitor]

I remember learning in grade school geography the ‘flush rate’ of Lake Erie being 2 years. Seems the terminology has changed somewhat but here it’s listed as still close to that at 2.6 years. I guess it depends on if you want to count all of the water or just some of it… Next up is Ontario at 6 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_retention_time

This is exactly correct if one is referring to the turnover of 100% of water in a given lake. [[Erie and Ontario in the case mentioned above).

But if one was to take the mean time for any given gallon of water from Lake Erie to Ontario to the Atlantic it would be in the general range of 2 years. This is variable as noted in the subsequent post, based on volume and weather [[wind especially)

[Bong-Man]

Paddle-to-the-Sea - Wikipedia

Mandatory reading in about 2nd grade. Might have been the first book I ever read. Still for sale at the Pictured Rocks Welcome Center.

[jcole]

That's really quite interesting; I just put it on hold at my library.

Paddle-to-the-Sea - Wikipedia

Mandatory reading in about 2nd grade. Might have been the first book I ever read. Still for sale at the Pictured Rocks Welcome Center.

[Ray1936]

I was in the 2nd grade at William Ford grade school in Dearborn in 1943. The best thing I can remember about it is how the teachers drilled into me that William Ford was Henry Ford's father. Ford totally ruled Dearborn, I would venture to say.

[Franksgoodnephew]

It all depends on what day of the week and whether its during rush hour! LOL