When Great Lakes water levels dropped to record lows last summer, experts feared the lakes might not recover, permanently damaging the region’s economy.

But today, we’re awash in water.

What happened? The answer: good old-fashioned rain and snow.

The record low water levels and economic angst of 2007 met their match – at least for now – in record rain and snowfall that replenished the lakes.

That’s especially true in the states surrounding the upper lakes of Superior, Michigan and Huron, which then feed the lower lakes of Erie and Ontario.

Last summer, boaters were bemoaning dry docks and shippers were complaining about losing millions of dollars because they had to lighten their loads to get through shallower harbors.

Things hit bottom when Lake Superior, the feeder lake for all the others, broke a low-water record set in 1926.

The recovery began with record rains in fall 2007 and continued through winter and spring.

But, no one is predicting that the rain – or the rise – will last.

One federal report suggests that Lake Erie water levels could drop by 33 inches over the next 70 years, leading to a 15 percent decrease in lake surface area and significantly altering shorelines.

“So just because they’re going up now after a season of rain and snow doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way,” said Thomas Croley, a hydrologist for the federal Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Michigan. “And it certainly doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t real.”

And shippers who depend on deep waters in Great Lakes harbors to enable them to completely fill their vessels aren’t convinced that their fortunes have changed.

Still, all five lakes are significantly deeper than a year ago.

Lake Superior gained the most, adding 17 inches of depth, Thieme said.

Lake Erie has risen the least, increasing 7 inches, but is now slightly above an average August depth, records show. Scientists project the lake ending up at least 6 inches below normal by September.