A new buoy offers real-time Lake Michigan conditions for local boaters and beach-goers. Placed four miles off the coast of Michigan City about two weeks ago, it's the first of its kind in the Indiana waters of Lake Michigan. Jointly owned and operated by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and the Purdue University Department of Civil Engineering, from about April first to November first each year, the buoy will relay real-time info on wind speed, air and water temperature, wave height and direction, and other data from what Purdue engineer Cary Troy calls an “understudied area” of the lake.  John Taylor, a National Weather Service meteorologist with the Northern Indiana office, says conditions in the center of the lake are much different from conditions closer to the shore.

             ( courtesy of purdue.edu)