Lake Okeechobee, the largest lake in Florida, has an average depth of only nine feet (2.7 meters).
Oh, and it has 30,000 alligators, but try not to think about that. Dough4872 , CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
I can’t explain why this bothers me so much, but something about it being so big and yet so shallow just creeps me out. I find it unsettling, okay? Mentally, it makes me feel like noodles, if that makes sense.
It’s the eighth-largest (freshwater) lake in the country but I’ve swam in deeper pools at the YMCA. Why did they make it like that?
For reference, Lake Michigan has an average depth of 279 feet (85 meters). Okeechobee is a puddle in comparison.
I don’t know, maybe this makes me sound insane, but looking at pictures like this and knowing that it’s just so shallow all the way across just makes me feel weird.
Like, you couldn’t even scuba here. I mean, I guess you could, but why would you? Just snorkel.
(Disclaimer: absolutely do NOT snorkel or scuba in Lake Okeechobee because of the aforementioned 30,000 alligators it contains)
Okay, so it’s a very shallow lake, but guess what? It also used to flood all the time. Thousands of people have been killed in its floods.
Thankfully, the flooding thing is much more under control these days, but it’s taken a long and incredibly dumb journey to get here.
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