For the first time in 14 years, Erie gets completely blanketed by ice

[Snow Bird]

Lake Erie Frozen,Lake Erie Frozen 2010: For the first time in 14 years, Erie gets completely blanketed by ice

National Weather Service in Cleveland reports Lake Erie to be completely frozen. And according to records, this is one phenomenon which has come about just once in the last 14 years.

Along the northern shore the ice spread is very thin since that is the deepest part of the lake. But the southern shore has several inches of snow and reportedly people are already out enjoying skating along the southern shore.

As of now, the ice cover looks complete, but Gary Garnet, warning coordination meteorologist, informs that fresh winds may cause cracks and fissures in the ice.

Even then the current cold northeast winds are expected to cover the lake, even if not for its whole expand, in ice for the rest of the month.

.Lake Erie is one of the five Great Lakes. And since it is the shallowest of the five, there is always greater chance of its getting frozen completely.

Meanwhile, ice chunks are reportedly floating off the coast of Dunkirk, N.Y., too. And this is something more unusual than Erie getting covered by ice. Because on that part, the lake is at its deepest and it will generally be the last place to freeze.

Well see, the warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture and that causes the lakes to freeze over because....oh never mind.

http://www.entertainmentandshowbiz.com/lake-erie-frozenlake-erie-frozen-2010-for-the-first-time-in-14-years-erie-gets-completely-blanketed-by-ice-2010021736740

[cliffordu]

1. Welcome to DU.

Nice try.

Almost

[villager]

2. you're not the first overworked climate change denier to post here...

nor will you be the last....

Alas.

[tabatha]

3. Have you ever heard of the lake effect?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake-effect_snow

[Writer]

4. Maybe they can move the winter olympics there...

because they're having to shuttle snow to Vancouver.

Fool.

[Snow Bird]

8. If you actually knew your history

Snow was "shuttled" into the Olympics at Lake Placid New York, in 1932 and 1980. The 1928 winter games in St Moritz Switzerland almost had to be canceled because of a warming spell.

Those that don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.

[kestrel91316]

5. And why, pray tell, hasn't Lake Erie frozen over for the past 14 years???

ZOMG it snowed yesterday, that proves global warming is a hoax!!!!1!!111!!

[greyl]

6. Sorry these links aren't from an Entertainment & Showbiz site, but deal with it:

Why has this winter been so cold?

Alright, so let's start with the fact that December in Houston was 3.5 degrees below normal and through the first five days of January -- before the Arctic front arrives today -- Houston's average temperature has been 9.3 degrees below normal. It's been cold. And as you all know, it's about to get much colder.

Why?

It's a confluence of factors, says Lance Wood, the Science & Operations officer at the Houston/Galveston office of the National Weather Service. It's also a bit complicated, so let's start at the beginning.
more:
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2010/01/why_has_this_winter_been_so_freaking_cold.html

Also see: www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/why-so-cold-greenland-block_2010-01-11

[Snow Bird]

7. So Erie didn't freeze over then?

[Oregone]

10. Mount Cypress sure could use some of that cold

Warmest weather in Vancouver in over a century. What a drag on the Olympics

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. That's normal

http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/chat/answers/010801_freeze.html

Do the Great Lakes freeze in the winter?

from Debbie in Olyphant, Penn., Michael in Kenosha, Wisc., and Jim in St. Clair Shores, Mich.

The Great Lakes do freeze, but not completely. According to Ray Assel of the http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/">Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, ice cover on the Great Lakes varies from lake to lake and year to year. For example, in a year with normal temperatures, 25 percent of Lake Ontario will be frozen over, while up to 90 percent of Lake Erie will be frozen. However, wind and water movement over bodies of water as large and deep as the Great Lakes make it unlikely the lakes have ever frozen over completely for any significant length of time.

The Great Lakes have come close to freezing over completely during the extremely cold winters of 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-79, with up to 90 percent ice coverage. However, Assel says that severe winter air temperatures are not necessary for large ice cover on the lakes. A cool summer and fall can result in below normal water temperatures by late fall. Extensive ice cover can then form with only average winter temperatures.

...

[greyl]

17. So you didn't read the explanations then? nt

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. Wow! Have Niagara Falls frozen over too?

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[OKIsItJustMe]

16. Well, as a life-long (upstate) New Yorker...

This Winter is not unusually cold (unless you think the last decade or so was normal.)

[HeresyLives]

14. 115F in Rio.

Meanwhile the northern hemisphere is having winter.

You find this odd?

Have you heard about the earth tilting yet?

[tinrobot]

15. ...and yet, we're possibly looking at the warmest February on record

Huh... imagine that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x228692

Global Climate Destabilization at work.

[joshcryer]

18. It already passed the date where, on average, it can be cooler! So it is the warmest Feb on record!

Even if the rest of Feb is below the previous line (which doesn't appear to be the case), it is the warmest Feb on record!

Thanks for linking my post, btw, I'm glad others are watching it.

[Sherman A1]

19. Thanks for Posting

We drove along Erie this year for vacation up to Niagara Falls. Stopped at the lighthouse at Dunkirk, NY. It was pretty cool!

[FedUpWithIt All]

20. The lake used to freeze every year. The fact that it has not been freezing

as well is definitely unusual. One semi normal winter in 14 years is not an indicator that the other 13 years were not abnormal.

Try looking at the bigger picture...if you are able.

[TxRider]

21. Big picture?

In the big picture you would have to include it having hundreds of feet of ice glacier on top of it.

The big picture is that we have been warming for a long long time, and will continue to warm until the next glacial cycle buries the great lakes under a mile thick glacier once again, before it recedes back to the arctic in the next warming cycle.

The question at hand is how much of that warming is natural and how much of the warming is man made?

And when the next glacial cycle will start, or if it will, and why?

[FedUpWithIt All]

22. To myself personally, it matters not a whit which it is. I KNOW my behavior has been irresponsible

I know my behavior causes too much waste.

I know my behavior causes dead zones and garbage dumps in the ocean.

I know animals die from the production and disposal wrought from my lifestyle.

I know that mountains are raped in an effort to feed my unnecessary energy hunger.

I know that those in extreme poverty are suffering and dying from lack of clean drinking water while i consume water from bottles taken from their clean water sources while i live right next door to one of the largest fresh water sources in the world.

I know that the chemicals released from the production of...take your pick, TV, tennis shoes, computer, iPod, Wii...is releasing toxic chemicals into the water, air and soil which ALL LIFE depends on.

I know that my van is not more necessary in getting me from point a to point b than a smaller vehicle which would add less pollution to the air my family needs to breathe.

I know that easy food from long distances has desensitized me to natures seasonal hunger. I want, not need, strawberries and bananas in winter. This has caused a greater global production strain on small regional areas.

I know that nearly every single resource in the world is suffering, dying or being depleted by our extreme gluttony, greed, vanity, arrogance...

Truth be told, i don't understand what difference it really makes whether or not one believes that the weather changes are human induced or not. We KNOW our behavior is certainly not helping. We know that we are killing the planet, if not through weather changes, than certainly through other destructive means. The list above could go on.

Here is bigger picture for you...Coming together to change the things we KNOW we are doing that harm the planet and life on it, and the weather debate would be fairly mute. We have so much to account for that it melts my brain to see that mankind would rather debate this issue than do what we can to change what we can while we can. Meanwhile everything suffocates, starves, drowns and dies in our sickening amount of waste.


The consequences of doing nothing are too great.

[Nihil]

23. Excellent post. (n/t)

:applause: