Lake Superior last froze over in 2003. It has now, again, frozen over. The frequency of freeze overs has historically been around once every 20 years. Now, in the last decade, we have seen two freeze overs.
The picture below is a beautiful satellite photo of Lake Superior from yesterday. With the well below freezing temperatures seen over the region Thursday night (-20 F), any isolated open water could have frozen.
The NWS in Marquette MI writes:
Due to the recent cold spell and below normal temperatures for much of the winter of 2008-2009, ice covers nearly all of Lake Superior. Only small areas of open water remain. This image was taken on Tuesday, March 3rd. If arctic air does not return in the next couple of weeks, it is likely that this will be the day of maximum ice cover on Lake Superior for this winter as warmer weather and periods of stronger winds through the end of this week will cause open water areas to expand. Click on the image to view a higher resolution satellite picture (image is large — just under 1mb).
Source:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mqt/?n=lake_superior_ice
h/t to Kevin Klimek
Just Want Truth… (14:56:47) :
“Roy Spencer (14:20:29) :
LSSU is where I went and could see the st. marys river from school,
Don’t ya know eah?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Marys_River_(Michigan)
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/history.php
Methow Ken (11:07:29) :
The next ~10 years or so will be very interesting, as Al Gore and the politically correct ”debate is over” crowd may well have to contend with both the growing volume of scientific data and scientists that refuse to conform to what has effectively become the religious dogma of Rev. Gore and his acolytes; AND with discrete events like Superior freezing over more often that are easily comprehended by all.
SIDEBAR: Outdoor digital said 17.3 degrees below zero F. this morning at my 2nd home here in northern ND; where as we used to say ”the only thing between us and the North Pole is a barbed wire fence.”
IMO one reason simple discrete events like Lake Superior freezing over twice in 7 years instead of the average once every 20 years are important, is that they have a much better chance of penetrating and ‘’sticking” in the conciousness and memory of the average voter; compared to reams of scientific data, no matter how compelling. Collectively if we have enough events like this in the next 10+ years, eventually the ”conventional wisdom” on ”climate change” may (hopefully) shift enough to bring a return to sanity. Unfortunately, the unknown variable we cannot solve for yet is: How_Long_Will_That_Take_??
Certainly in the last couple years we already have a fair start on discrete world-wide ”weather events” that start to counterbalance the ”debate is over” mantra (snow events in the Persian Gulf and North Africa, tough winter in the U.K., etc. etc.). But likely it will take a lot more of the same and similar over many years to get hoi polloi spun up enough to demand a course change; hopefully some time before we irretrievably hit the economic iceberg. Too bad the increased velocity of the River Thames thru London after the bridge-building and other changes in the 19th Century make it very unlikely that it will freeze over again even if it gets very cold. Having another ”Ice Fair” on the Thames would get some attention. . . .
And it is sobering to consider that many of the lessons of history regarding the battles of science versus politically correct dogma are not encouraging; i.e.:
Galileo Galilei versus the Inquisition in the late Middle Ages, etcetera. Inquisitor-in-Chief Mr. Gore and his legions of Torquemadas will not be dethroned easily. . . .
Methow Ken,
You don’t understand the situation here.
This is not a scientific dispute where one party tries to convince the other.
This is a well organized political doctrine which goal is reached as soon climate legislation has been introduced.
If you want to “change” something you have to develop a political strategy and execute it asap. Otherwise it will be too late.
Wow this February is .043 degrees warmer than last February… MAN THE LIFEBOATS!!!!
“Yes a comprehensive picture of global cooling if one adds the Arctic Sea Ice smack on the downward pointing trend line… with an extended solar minimum… and long may it last… climate scientists are loving it, not coming at a better time.”
Loving what? Do they want the earth to burn?
Mike Bryant,
Right on man, right on!
Just Want the Truth,
I am not a Yooper, but my brother-in-law who is a true Yooper, claims that I am “a berry picker that doesn’t act like a berry picker! To him, I might get adoptive Yooper status if I keep it up.
Ya — bin ride’n the snowmachine on Keweenaw bay fish’n for da lake trout. Don’t ja ever call da lake trout a mackinaw now! You’ll be labeled a Berry Picker for sure! I think I love my in-laws more than I love my wife! And my wife is as cool as they come!
markm
Many people in the UK understand that this AGW thing is a load of bunkum. It’s a political blunt instrument to extort more money out of taxpayers. Why else would the government insist that we all limit our “carbon footprint” and then give the go ahead for the third Heathrow runway? Perhaps they think we are all too stupid to realise we are being taken for an expensive ride?
Anyone with half a brain can seek out the facts and make their own minds up. Perhaps they have because the environment (AGW) came last in a list of things important to the British electorate. We consider the economy, the EU and uncontrolled immigration more important issues. When the revolution comes the Greenies will be the first against the wall. ;0)
we haven’t been on snow machines for ever…I used to have a nice Yamaha that was very fast. I see the newer ones have every convenience except a bedroom and shower.
We didn’t have those fancy groomed trails, either. We took turns breaking trail & getting stuck.
DJ (13:46:24) :
One tiny part of planet earth gets cold weather while the planet experiences the hottest temperatures ever recorded during a solar minimum which coincides with a La Nina – http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ .
Time to face the reality that you picked the wrong side of the “debate”.
It’s just a glitch before temperatures resume there way down. Of course, I have to point out that your statement is fairly cherry picked and in no way changes the fact that global temps are on the way down and have been for the last 7+ years.
Are you sure you are not on the wrong side of the debate?
DJ (13:46:24) :
One tiny part of planet earth gets cold weather while the planet experiences the hottest temperatures ever recorded during a solar minimum which coincides with a La Nina – http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ .
Time to face the reality that you picked the wrong side of the “debate”.
Curious as to why you did not choose to link to this image..
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/discover-amsu5-trends-screenshot1.jpg
timbrom (14:12:59) :
“The UK Met Office claims that it may have been the coldest winter for 13 years (or whatever), but if it wasn’t for Global Warming it would have been even colder.”
This is a self-defeating argument. It says the natural climate is even cooler than models predict. The ability of the models to predict the natural climate accurately is the basis of all pro-AGW theory.
Look at Cryosphere Today for the latest figures. I used Jim’s eye ball method to calculate the ice areas. I’m about 2% off. Still using there figures we are at 97% normal. Maybe someone should tell congress that global warming has been cancelled!
Date 3/7/2009
Current Total Ice Area 13.9
Normal Ice Area 14.4
Current % of Normal 97%
% of % of
Normal Current Normal Total Ice
Bering Sea 0.55 0.55 100% 4%
St. Lawrence Sea Ice 0.2 0.2 100% 2%
Laptev Sea 0.7 0.7 100% 5%
Kara Sea 0.85 0.85 100% 7%
Hudson Bay Sea 1.25 1.25 100% 10%
East Siberian Sea 0.9 0.9 100% 7%
Chukchi Sea 0.6 0.6 100% 5%
Canadian Archipelago Sea 0.6 0.6 100% 5%
Beaufort Sea 0.5 0.5 100% 4%
Arctic Basin Sea 4.1 4.1 100% 31%
Baffin/Newfoundland Bay Sea 1.175 1.17 100% 9%
Greenland Sea 0.53 0.53 100% 4%
Okhotsk Sea 0.98 0.89 91% 7%
Barents Sea 0.62 0.52 84% 4%
Totals 13.555 13.36 99%
Alarm! Alarm! Global warming will cause the Great Lakes to be ice free THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!! Save the penguins!!! Save the polar bears!!!
The same people who signed the petition to ban dihydrogenmonoxide would probably sign a petition to stop the ice loss on the Great Lakes, don’tcha t’ink?
I sit in my Den in NE Oregon,32F watching the snow fly out my window,and it was doing the same thing a year ago,my DW is a Michigan girl, Raised by her dedicated Ice Fisherman Father, who would look forward to ice fishing with his pal Jack-Jack Daniels.
Douglas DC (17:30:00) : I sit in my Den in NE Oregon,32F watching the snow fly out my window,and it was doing the same thing a year ago…
Perhaps you’re the one who’s pal is Jack? Either that or you have some interesting weather inside your house. I don’t know anyone who watches the snow fly out their window. Maybe you are the cause of the global cooling going on the past few years?
8^]
I think you meant to say that you are looking out your window watching the snow fly.
Quoting:
“Nit-picking probably, but isn’t Lake Baikal the biggest? Before the Ruskies half emptied it and poisoned the rest, I believe it accounted for 1/6th of the world’s liquid fresh water.”
Commenting:
Baikal is deeper and therefore has more volume of fresh water. For suface area, Superior is tops.
If memory serves.
How can Lake Superior freeze over and the Artic thaw ????????? It’s hard to beleive everything that AGW can manage to do.
AGW is like beer… the cause of, AND the answer to all of man’s problems.
WestHoustonGeo:
“Baikal is deeper and therefore has more volume of fresh water. For suface area, Superior is tops.
If memory serves.”
This is a tricky one! One could argue that the Caspian Sea is the largest but since it has no outflow its water is somewhat brackish so one might want to go with Superior as the largest freshwater lake (although one could also argue that Lakes Michigan and Huron are really one lake formation and combined they top Superior in size). Regardless, Superior is a big honking lake!
Its interesting that a couple of years ago, after the warm El Nino winter with low ice levels (and hence high evaporation), Superior’s water level dropped significantly and of course this was all the fault of CO2 and we were all going to die etc., etc, – you know the standard warminista drivel! Well after a couple of colder winters with more ice we now see that Superior’s levels have recovered to close to the mean and will likely exceed once it Spring rolls round. The following site gives a good view to what Great Lakes water levels are doing and where they are likely headed.
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/levels.html
For those of you who have never witnessed the Great Lakes, they are truly are marvel of the natural world and in the summer are a fantastic recreational playground!
Marquette United States historic January temps. 2005+2006 data missing. Graph:-
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt74/MartinGAtkins/Marquette.jpg
matt v. (13:03:18) :
Kum Dollison
This is a more resent graph, it’s up to Jan 2009 AMO unsmoothed.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt74/MartinGAtkins/AMO.jpg
Tim L (15:25:17) :
MarkM (15:38:51) :
Roy Spencer (14:20:29) :
I was in the Soo in the winter of 1979-80. I was on the volleyball team from Menominee and U.P. high schools met there for the U.P. Championships –we called it The U.P. Olympics, didn’t we? I stayed in Soo Ontario and we had the games at LSSU. It was the first time I was in a real college. Menominee tied for third with Escanaba, but Esky had the tie breaker. So we didn’t medal. Escanaba always seemed to do something like that to Menominee ;).
I remember playing Sault St. Marie in football at home earlier in the year and we really had our way with them. Even our 2rd stringers scored on a lot on them. 😉 I think the final was 63-12. But Soo didn’t care about football. Hockey was their sport.
“Roy Spencer (16:26:55) :…we haven’t been on snow machines for ever”
Wow, Roy Spencer used to ride snowmobiles!!
———
Oh ya, back on topic :
There’s a cooling trend, PDO 30 years cycles, cooling PDO now… so on, and so forth. 😉
Tonyb,
Providing you with far more than three:
* IPCC http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/
* IPCC-FAQ: http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/FAQ/wg1_faqIndex.html
* EPA-Basic Info http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basicinfo.html
* EDF-Basic Science http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2008/01/09/basic_science/
* The Discovery of Global Warming http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index.html
Let’s have no more talk about beer – it has CO2 in it, don’tcha know – well, unless you have enough to share all around.
…yet it was in the mid 50’s all this week in lower Michigan. Crazy how the temperature can vary so much within the same state.
Interesting article though.
Cooling of North America seems to continue for a little while more:
http://www.klimadebat.dk/forum/attachments/northamericamar09.gif
UK Sceptic (16:01:54) :
[no calls to violence ~ charles the moderator]