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I recently wrote a #GreatLakes tweet discussing the distinction between storm surge and seiches, following a huge surge on LakeErie. I was asked if a seiche was to follow, but the answer caught me off guard: #LakeErie may have huge storm surges, but it has a weak seiche game!
I’ll reiterate: storm surge refers to water stacking up at one end of a lake during a large wind event; seiches are periodic sloshing of water back and forth in a basin. Seiches frequently follow storm surges, but they are separate phenomena resulting from distinct physics. 
While I study lake physics in general, the system I’m most familiar with is the #GLOAT, #LakeSuperior. Seiching activity is ubiquitous in Lake Superior- it’s hard to look at a record of lake level without seeing the characteristic, eight-hour oscillations.
