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
schnurrp
Yep and that’s why people laugh!
cold, yo.
Must be the effect of the Gore Global Warming theory. You remember Gore, the guy who invented the internet, and global warming? The Lake is beautiful, and I would love to move there someday.
Huh. Looks like there are five of us yoopers/former yoopers on here. I was raised in Houghton. MartinGAtkins: Thanks for the graph of January temps in Marquette. Couldn’t help noticing the marked 39-yr downtrend. By eyeball it looks to be about 1.2 degrees.
According to Gore: Up is down, warm is cold, lie is truth, and this truth is found by not debating.
Re: North Pole Ice Survey trek:
It’s not surprising this WWF “scientific” survey leaves with a mandate to find the state of “arctic ice decline”. Not that WWF would ever skew information. What an ethical dilemma if they run into aggressive polar bears. To shoot or not to shoot, that is the question.
My guess: the WWF report on the survey is already written. All that’s left to be done is to cherry pick supportive data and issue the press release about ” arctic ice disappearing faster than predicted”.
What? I’m typing this a few hundred feet away from Lake Superior (southern shore), there isn’t anything close to total ice coverage. And what coverage there is came fairly recently after early February saw a week long warm spell. Then, Superior was liquid right up to the shore line.
The boats never plan on running in the winter months (though they will if the winter is mild). And the major winter navigation issue is the mouth of the St. Mary’s River (something that requires piloting even during the shipping season) because it freezes early…being fairly shallow and narrow.
And what cold snap for the coming week should i be worried about? Most of the forecast calls for highs near, or above, freezing. And the lowest forecasted low is 1…that’s not cold.
Good Lord, we’re already in our second big melt-off and people are walking around without hats and gloves. Which only goes to prove that the only reliable meteorology is the kind that comes from going outside.
BTW, we had near record snowfalls this year, which generally comes with warmer weather in these parts. Colder weather tends to crust over the Lake, starving the sky of the stuff to make snow and dump all over us.
And this has nothing to do with global warming…only the observations of a person out of doors 40+ hours/wk in the Great White North.
Oh, and which part of the “region” (it is bigger than Austria) where you referring to having lows of -20 on Thursday, 3/5? The low in Marquette was 28. Highs and lows were both higher than average.
Oh gee…stumbled across this dire prediction from 2 yrs back:
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Lake-Superior-in-US-Losing-Ice-Cover-Fast–Signaling-Global-Warming-19730-1/
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺
Al Gore!! Where are you when we need you? Please go to Lake Superior and give a speech–or “read a teleprompter.” The hot air produced will not only thaw the lake but can be used to energize every home and business within a radius of 500 miles.
Wow. Quite a lovely image. I like in Duluth at the very western tip of Superior. We certainly get our fair share of cold weather and it never feels like we’re getting any of that ‘global warming’. Haha.
As one who lives on the shore of this Lake, this freeze over will help keep the temps down through Spring, and early Summer around here. Prevailing winds during this time are from the East during that time. The ice also helps keep the evaporation down. We have been maintaining about a 6″ below normal level for a few months. Without the ice, it would have been much greater. It has been a very cold winter, although Feb was much nicer, temp wise.
The N Plains(Dakotas), along with most of the Midwest, and Lakes took a good Arctic hit this winter.
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/Last3mTDeptUS.png
Some cities from NE MN, N WI, and the UP MI.
Duluth,MN
Dec. -7.0
Jan. -5.1
Feb. +0.4
DJF= -3.9
I-Falls,MN
Dec. -8.8
Jan. -5.8
Feb. -2.9
DJF= -5.8
Rhinelander,WI
Dec. -5.5
Jan. -6.0
Feb. +2.3
DJF= -3.1
Marquette,MI
Dec. -4.7
Jan. -5.3
Feb. +0.2
DJF= -3.3
Sault Ste. Marie,MI
Dec. -3.1
Jan. -3.3
Feb. +2.4
DJF= -1.3
My house is about 140 feet from the shore of Lake Superior, at Little Marais, MN.
The lake is not completely open, but only a remnant about 200 yards extends from shore today, Sunday, March 9. My wife and I walked on the lake Thursday morning. Nearby ice fishermen measured the ice as 7 inches thick. Water was bubbling up through little holes in the ice as ventured further about 50 feet from shore, a pool on top of the ice.
Yes, we can expect to see the lakers shipping coal to power plants around Lake Superior after March 15. Whether icebreakers can get through the St. Mary’s River at Sault Ste. Marie is always iffy. The shipping season is determined by the Army Corps of Engineers. Shipping ended January 15. It was cold then too.
I send daily weather observations online to the Minnesota State Climatologist.
On Monday and Tuesday this past week, two unofficial observers at Finland, MN, 8 miles inland reported a minimum of -30F. Four miles east of Finland at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, about 900 feet elevation above the lake, the report was -14F. At my place it was -9F. Extremes are that localized. The temperature rose more than 60 degrees in less than 24 hours, to a maximum of 55F on Thursday afternoon.
By the way, Wolf Ridge ELC has a climate change curriculum. You might want to check it out.
Here’s a nice link to past ice on the Lakes.(1973-2002)
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/atlas/
Current ice.
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/app/WsvPrdCanQry.cfm?subID=2001&Lang=eng
johnofmirecourt (08:08:58) : said;
“Why is using short term weather as gloating /dreaming / wishing / against all evidence commenting such a popular meme for denying there are effects happening from man’s increasing the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere?”
To which I replied;
“Please confirm what this evidence is, and let’s stick to the legal term of that word i.e. ‘facts’. Theoretical models from Computers that even the IPCC say are flawed are inadmissable, wishing something is true is inadmissable, saying something is true lots of times is inadmissable, believing something is true just because someone with letters after their name has told you that is inadmissable.
Please provide me with three FACTS that back up what you say.”
Johnofmirecourt (great name) replied
“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”
John, there are an awful lot of generalities here. Can you give me just three items that conclusively prove disastrous man made climate change so we can dissect them here and apply the scientific rule of testable hypothesis?
Thank you for your time
TonyB
It looks like Cryosphere Today is down…
Mike McMillan (09:43:20) : Remind me, since GIStemp is missing from the Glossary, what it does. Is it the homogenizer, the maker-up of missing data, or something else?
Yes.
Oh, more? This is Hansen’s imaginary friend that tells him ghost stories:
In the early steps, it deletes some data (older than 1880) and then it makes up some data (in-fill missing by guessing…) then it changes some pseudo randomly (via “the reference station method”) then it deletes some more, then it homogenizes (I think that was about STEP2, the 4th or so step… gives you an idea right there…) after which it interpolates some more data, then does some more “reference station method” but this time on “anomalies” and in the final round does some more interpolation (based on other interpolations and “simulations” based on polar ice data – maybe from our broken satellite?) and then comes back for one final round of interpolation / reference station method anomaly homogenization. The result is the Global Anomaly Map that makes AGW believers pee themselves in fear.
That is a fairly accurate list of steps (well, up to the ‘pee’ part; that only holds for a very few…). See:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/gistemp-start_here/
if you want more including source code listings…
‘conclusively’ ? ‘dissect’ ?
I’ll let you pick, but I’d posit that far better minds than ours have already gone through the arguments. If you want to discuss individual studies, the journal in question would be the venue; if you want to disprove the basics, well:
# This is a list of every skeptic argument encountered online as well as how often each argument is used. http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
# How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics
# Climate change: A guide for the perplexed http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11462
# Anti-global heating claims – a reasonably thorough debunking http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/07/23/anti-global-heating-claims-a-reasonably-thorough-debunking/
# Responses to common contrarian arguments http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/index/#Responses
Here in Thunder Bay, on the north shore of the big lake, it’s been a cold winter that started early. And what else is new? I don’t know anything about global warming, man made or otherwise, but we could sure use some if it’s out there. Carbon? Heck, if burning a tire in my back yard could get us some measurable warming, I’d do so on a daily basis. 😉
Johnofmirecourt (06:59:20) : said in reply to me
‘conclusively’ ? ‘dissect’ ?
“I’ll let you pick, but I’d posit that far better minds than ours have already gone through the arguments. If you want to discuss individual studies, the journal in question would be the venue; if you want to disprove the basics, well:
# This is a list of every skeptic argument encountered online as well as how often each argument is used. http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
# How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics
# Climate change: A guide for the perplexed http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11462
# Anti-global heating claims – a reasonably thorough debunking http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2007/07/23/anti-global-heating-claims-a-reasonably-thorough-debunking/
# Responses to common contrarian arguments http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/index/#Responses
With respect, you are doing it again John, throwing thousands of things in the air and hoping some of them will stick. Weve all seen the ‘how to talk to a dimwitted climate sceptic’ web site and countered them.
Please take three individual proofs of global warming on the scale being suggested-you choose- so we can put them through the provable hypotheses test.
Thank you
TonyB
johnofmirecourt
Sorry, when you threw those thousands of references in the air I hadn’t noticed you had already invited me to catch three of them.
I will have a look through-it’ll be nice reading these old chestnuts again and will post a reply. I’m fairly tied up for a few days so will probably need to catch up with you on a new and relevant thread in due course, as you will see its a bit like a party here, where everyone crowds into a room to look at something then when a new attraction opens next door they all rush over there leaving the first room empty. Then the door shuts on it 🙂
If I see you posting I will give a reply, if you see me posting you can give me a reminder but give me till the weekend.
Best regards
Tonyb
How do you catch Al Gore?
Sneak up behind him and kick him in the ice hole.
Haha…..
Or just let him wander off in the woods. He will get lost like he did when he was VP.
Cold temperature records are being set for yesterday and today from the Spokane, Washington area to Redmond, Oregon. The Jet stream loop down into the western part of the US is the reason. This loop draws both winds and cold temps from the Arctic right into our homes and blew up my skirt today!
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May sun shine warm upon your face,
the rain fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again
may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
Sort of….a Marilyn Monroe type of skirt-blow-up, there, Pamela??
Well enjoy it. I wish that Irish Blessing had something to say about the “snow” falling soft on the fields.
(Maybe we should make it a Norwegian Blessing)
The pic currently on Spaceweather.com from your neck of the woods in the good ole’ PAC NW with the snowflakes with Venus visible in the background….is spectacular.
Well Mother Superior is about to get rocked by a blizzard. Will probably wrinkle her icy coat no doubt…or maybe enhance it.
Minimum temps near or below zero night after next…
Do women in Duluth wear skirts this time of year?? Just asking.
Chris
Norfolk, VA