MICHIGAN – The water levels of the Great Lakes are higher now than at this point last year, a year that saw record flooding across southern and eastern Ontario.

The Detroit News is reporting levels on lakes Michigan and Huron will set new monthly mean record high levels over the next couple of months.

“This sets the stage for coastal impacts and damages in 2020 similar to, or worse than, what was experienced last year,” Chief of the Great Lakes Hydraulics and Hydrology Office in Detroit told the newspaper.

The Army Corps of Engineers warned those in the U.S. side of the Great Lakes “to be prepared for another rise in levels with the six-month forecast showing lakes well above average.”

Officials are predicting lake Michigan and Huron will reach record highs this year. Water levels on lakes Erie and Superior set records for four consecutive months straight going in to the fall.

Increased wet conditions across the Great Lakes basin have continued to prompt the rising lake levels and with warmer-than-average temperatures last December, there was greater runoff due to snowpack melting on Lake Superior, Corps officials said.