Lake Superior sets a new record for winter ice cover, other lakes are icing up fast.
Lake Superior is 92 percent frozen on the surface, breaking a 20-year-old record of 91 percent set on Feb. 5, 1994. Temperatures continue well below freezing. Have a look at this graph:
As far as all the lakes go, here is the plot of historical maximums:
![IceCoverAvg1973_2013[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/icecoveravg1973_20131.jpg?quality=83)
The number to break is 94.7, set in 1979, which is also a year of some of the worst winter weather ever in the USA, and coincidentally, the peak year year when Arctic sea ice trends were begun via satellite measurements. Right now we are at 78.5%. Just a week ago the ice cover was 66 percent.
Source image (click for update) http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/glcfs.php?lake=l&ext=ice&type=N&hr=00
UPDATE: this graph from the Canadian Ice Service shows how much above the median the Great lakes have been:
![20140203180000_CVCSWCTGL_0007500871[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/20140203180000_cvcswctgl_00075008711.gif)
This graph shows by year, 2014 is now in third place:
![20140203180000_CVCHDCTGL_0007500868[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/20140203180000_cvchdctgl_00075008681.gif)
References:
Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/
Modis Imagery:
http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/modis.php?region=g&page=1
Canadian Ice Service:
http://iceweb1.cis.ec.gc.ca/Prod20/page2.xhtml?CanID=11080&lang=en
For the last nine days,high temp avg. has been more than 18 deg. below”normal” per Accuweather…East central Ks..
Wheres my WARMING!
Here is some info on Lake Ontario freezing.
http://www.garymay.ca/article18.htm
@William Howard Astley –
Why no media coverage of the growth of sea ice? Wouldn’t this be because it conflicts with their global warming mantra, which they are desperately trying to cling to?.
One wonders what the alarmies will do if we do suddenly descend into an ice age – especially if it’s more severe than the LIA? It will be interesting to watch them squirm, trying to make water freeze by heating it.
There are some great links here. Can you establish a Great Lakes ice page in the reference section?
In Chi-beria we only need another 1.2 inches of snow, to move into 3rd snowiest winter, of record. That could well happen today or tonight, as the snow has started to fall, again.
http://blog.chicagoweathercenter.com/
I survived both the snowiest winters ‘1977-78’ and ‘1978-1979’. This one has a similar feel to it. The current pattern is too cold, to snow very much. But we still have another 39 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes, until spring. We need another 12.5″ for second place.
The record is 80.6″ and we are currently at 59.6″. I don’t think we will get there, unless Gore or Obama show up. If one of them even re-fuels at O’Hare, that will bring us another 8″ storm.
WHY WE WILL HAVE AN EPIC TOTAL GL FREEZEOVER SOMEDAY
When water is 40F or more, the warmest water is the lightest, thus the coldest waters tend to sink to the lowest depths, and the warmest waters tend to stay up top.
Once water temps are dropping, and hit 39F, however, things reverse. It doesn’t much matter how deep the lakes are, because ice crystals start to form, and make up a small fraction of the water starting at 39F … so the coldest water now stays at the top because it is progressively less dense as it continues to add light crystals/freeze/get colder. The stratification of temp layers thus reverses in the top layers of the lake, so that the coldest water layer stays at the top because it is most bouyant, and the next closest layers to the top are the coldest layers in the lake until you finally get down to the 40F*+ waters.
If cold continues, lakes freeze over more quickly once dropping below 39F water at top because the growing fraction of ice crystals seal the top most layers of the lake from the lower, warmer layers. The warmer layers (40+F) are still below for the fishies and such, but they cannot penetrate/mix with the sealing layersnif cold temps (32F and below) persist. One might think that high winds could mix the water, but it actually helps transmit the cold air to the top layers more quickly.
Water is very good at holding heat, so the more water there is, the more heat it will hold. This is why large deep lakes take longer to initially freeze, but once 39F water is reached in an extended cold spell, the “game” changes, and all lakes will freeze if the cold spell continues a bit longer.
While people will argue that Lake Michigan or Lake Ontario do not ever freeze over – they are incorrect. At some extended cold spell length all the Great Lakes will freeze over. For example, wouldn’t everyone agree that all the lakes would freezeover when, and if, we enter a new ice age? Of course, because eventually it would be so cold, they would even all be covered ALL YEAR by very thick glaciers … and would have frozen completely over many preceeding winters.
So, my point is not that we are entering a new ice age … my point is that at some extended length of a cold spell … each of the Great Lakes can and will freeze over.
Where are the A-Hats in the media now?
My anti-favorite green peace sympathizer and pseudo-journalist Martin Mittlelstaedt used to write about human extinction catastrophes du jour regularly at the Globe and Mail.
Canada has 20% of all the fresh water in the world. And it is nearly all frozen over!
That is big news. The world is getting colder and that is an enormous problem.
Maybe when Martin is eating dogfood out of a 2-years old can because the crops failed for one summer he’ll pull his activist head out of his @ur momisugly$$. That goes for the NYT A-Hat Seth Borenstein too. One year of crop stress is all it will take to screw up their comfy urban ivory tower delusions.
It will be chaos in the streets.
Deep Frozen bread basket and dry southwest means short growing season then skyrocketing food commodities and beef etc. Buy grain futures!!! Actually, you should buy and hoard the grain.
“set in 1979, which is also a year of some of the worst winter weather ever in the USA”
Ever, eh? Warmistas media spin making inroads I see.
“In North America, all of Canada and portions of the United States were covered by ice sheets as far south as the Missouri and Ohio Rivers.”
http://geography.about.com/od/climate/a/glaciation.htm
Jimbo says:
February 8, 2014 at 9:05 am
More signs of climate change?
Dirty snow.
/s
Village Idiot says:
February 8, 2014 at 11:46 am
Ever, eh? Warmistas media spin making inroads I see.
You should be proud of yourself, then.
C’mon folks. Whether you are a coolista or a warmista you cannot use a couple of years of different weather as anything more than just what it is, different weather. Now if we still have snow across the U. S. in August, I might have to rethink some things.
What does all this ice mean for increased albedo and even lower temperatures down the line?
Village Idiot says:
February 8, 2014 at 11:46 am
Let’s not be silly. The United States [of America] didn’t exist until the late 18th century. The other United States* & Canada came later yet.
*Estados Unidos Mexicanos
I’m not sure where the “missing heat” is hiding, but it’s probably not in Lake Superior.
Rod Everson says:
February 8, 2014 at 7:28 am
Explanation anyone? I find it hard to believe that graph isn’t recording some temps in the area of -20 to -30F at times this winter.
If you have 50 or more miles of water around the center of Lake Superior, that water will never be below 32 F. So even if -30 F air comes in, by the time it reaches the middle of Lake Superior, it will have warmed to about 0 F. However once it is ice covered, then there is no reason temperatures cannot get much colder.
Something similar happens in reverse in the prairies when snow covers 90% of the ground. Regardless how warm the air wants to be due to the sun or wind, it seems hard to get higher than 12 or 14 C as long as the snow “emits” 0 C into the air if you know what I mean. But once the snow is gone, then 30 C is no problem.
http://piccolaeraglaciale.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/una-legione-di-grandi-tempeste-precede-il-grande-freddo/
In Europe the storms come before the Little Ice Age.
“Hell, Michigan has frozen over!” HAHAHAHAHA. Ouch sides hurt.
Summer of 9th grade I rode my bike from Hell to Paradise – Michigan that is.
My recollections:
Too many sweet cherries for a bike trip,
Too many flats during the Hell phase of the trip,
Getting hit by a car and getting bad road rash just after leaving Hell,
Too many hills around Petoskey, but
Rest of the trip was a sweet memory.
Looks like this might be the year to risk taking that snowmobile trip across the big lake you always dreamed about. I bet there are going to be some spectacular ice ridge pictures this year as well.
Now, I’m just a simple country boy who once ran a JD 5020 with a 40ft wing disc, but I know that freshly plowed dirt is a great place for sailplanes to catch “thermals” (I’m just a simple country boy who’s been up in a sailplane), so it seems to me that that funny ol’ word “albedo” might have a tiny bit to do with it.
J.R. Lagoni says:
February 8, 2014 at 11:42 am
What you are trying to say is that fresh water reaches its maximum density at 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 degs F).
The drought is in California. Here in Colorado the temps have been plenty cold and the mountains are getting hammered with snow. It is not all across the west.
UN IPCC Statement on Climate Change:
It is such a great relief that there is now significant ice cover growing on great bodies of water all over the planet. We were worried global warming would cause climate catastrophes of biblical proportions. We are grateful our concerns have been alleviated by recent evidence of prolific freezing cold conditions on planet Earth. In light of the evidence, we are scaling back our catastrophic climate change proclamations. We wish to thank our environmental warriors for raising awareness of Global Warming concerns, however it is no linger necessary to raise the fear level over this issue further, due to the extensive worldwide cooling. Please direct your environmental concerns to more traditional pollution controls other than CO2 effects that don’t appear to be causing change change, as natural factors appear to be the main driver.
Thank You
LOL Now we know another reason salt is being delivered by Algowoods &Algowayto metropolitan southern Lake Michigan. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Saline [solution] shortage prompts Wisconsin hospitals to conserve supplies.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/saline-shortage-prompts-wisconsin-hospitals-to-conserve-supplies-b99201379z1-244557421.html
Salt solution is much a more effective de-icer than crystalline salt.
The climate is changing. It is globally cooling. I told you.
Ice build up followed by sudden release through broken ice dams along the St. Lawrence outlet.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3523838/
Stark Dickflüssig says:
February 8, 2014 at 1:26 pm
it seems to me that that funny ol’ word “albedo” might have a tiny bit to do with it
The albedo of white sand and white snow may be the same, but the difference in the effect on temperatures is huge. Or think of a very warm wind coming in at night to both sand and snow.
Yes, albedo may have some effect, but I think it is negligible in this comparison.