Great Lakes Ice Cover Spreading Rapidly; See Which Lake Set A New Record

[Purveyor]

Ice continued to build this past week on the Great Lakes due to the cold air and temperatures staying below freezing, and Lake Superior's new record shows it.

The lake is 92 percent frozen, toppling a 20-year-old record of 91 percent set on Feb. 5, 1994. That statistic helped total Great Lakes ice cover soar, and we can expect to see more form in coming days.

The air temperatures this past week averaged around five degrees below normal for the Great Lakes area. This amount of deviation from normal means it was a fairly cold week.

As of February 5, 2014, the entire Great Lakes system is now reportedly covered 77 percent with ice, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Last week at this time the ice cover was 66 percent. The 77 percent ice cover now still lags behind 1994, when the entire Great Lakes system had an average ice cover of 84 percent on February 5. This data is according to Jia Wang, physical oceanographer at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Center in Ann Arbor, MI.

Let's look at each individual lake.

MORE...

http://www.mlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2014/02/great_lakes_added_11_percent_i.html

[notadmblnd]

1. The good thing about it is that snow storms won't pick up additional moisture

as they move east.

[greytdemocrat]

2. Damn Global Warming!!!!

[Sheldon Cooper]

3. Wonder why Michigan and Ontario are less frozen than the rest.

What a stunning picture.

[frwrfpos]

6. Ontario is a much deeper lake

thats why the ice cover is much less dense...more circulation

[gollygee]

10. Lake Superior is by far the deepest lake

http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/factsheet.html

[surrealAmerican]

4. Lake Michigan is still largely liquid from where I can see it.

Then again, I've lived here over 20 years, and it's not frozen over anytime I've seen. I had no idea Superior would freeze over to this extent - I wonder why.

[maindawg]

5. the polar vortex

We are freezing our nuts off here in northern Ohio. Its very unsettling. Everything is frozen. You cant go out for a walk. You cant even get warm in your house. Every time it snows it gets worse. We had ice rain last week. There is ice everywhere.
I believe that the radical weather is due to climate change. We have had extreme cold before many times, but it lasts for a few weeks. Or it comes and it goes. We will have a big snow and a melt the next week. Its been about 6 or 7 weeks that this weather pattern has persisted.
I do hope we get credit for having a bad time because we are.

[pediatricmedic]

7. Global warming may be making it more stable, bad news for those in affected areas

Less extreme weather overall, which is actually a bad thing. Cold areas stay cold, hot areas stay hot, areas in drought stay in drought, etc.

[Purveyor]

8. I hear you. We are about 45 miles north of the Ohio/MI state line. This is getting tiresome and

expensive!!!

[alterfurz]

9. Yo man -- Let's get out of here! Word to your mother!

Ice Ice Baby Too cold, Ice Ice Baby Too cold