Great Lakes Mesoscale convective complexs or MCCs can cause damage to wide swaths of forest and shatter glass in city buildings. These storms mainly occur during the night, and the systems sometimes have small embedded tornadoes, but more often straight-line winds accompanied by intense lightning. Historically, the Great Lakes, in addition to their lake ecology, were surrounded by various forest ecoregions (except in a relatively small area of southeast Lake Michigan where savanna or prairie occasionally intruded). Logging, urbanization, and agriculture uses have changed that relationship. In the early 21st century, Lake Superior's shores are 91% forested, Lake Huron 68%, Lake Ontario
Great Lakes Megalopolis Micropolitan Statistical Areas (independent of the Combined Statistical Areas), as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The following sortable table lists the 27 statistical areas of the United States located on the Great Lakes with the following information: The following four sortable tables list the 27 census statistical areas of the United States located on the Great Lakes, by lake, with the following information: Great Lakes Megalopolis The Great Lakes Megalopolis consists of the group of metropolitan areas in North America largely in the Great Lakes region and along the Saint Lawrence Seaway. To its south and west,