The latest data just in from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor Michigan indicates that as of today, total ice cover reached the second highest value on record 91%, beating the previous 2nd highest value set in 1994 of 90.7%.
See the chart.
Source: http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/glcfs.php?lake=l&ext=ice&type=N&hr=00
In comparison to other years, only 1979 was higher for the satellite record:
Source: http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/imgs/IceCoverAvg1973_2013.jpg
Original graph updated by A. Watts
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Fred Singer Radio Interview…
He’s terrific – homespun, modest but obvious a giant in a field of mental pygmies.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2014/03/05/climate-change-with-dr-fred-singer-plus-tea-party-politics-with-george-rodriguez
Samuel C Cogar says:
March 5, 2014 at 6:28 am
The US hasn’t won a War since 45’ ….. if that give you a clue.
==========
The climate hasn’t changed in 16+ years. Best kind of war to fight, one that ended before you started fighting, and no enemy likely to shoot back.
Romney confirmed the sceptics’ worst fears when he described Russia as America’s “number one geopolitical foe.” Barack Obama lashed out with some adolescent sass: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because … the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100262116/ukraine-sarah-palin-and-mitt-romney-were-right-about-russia/
This Wrath-of-God winter in the Midwest and East is a heavy blow to the warmists. Most people compare weather to what they remember, so a repeat of 1979 is just what we skeptics need, unfortunately. Chicago has set the new record for most days at or below Zero F breaking a record set in 1885, that is right 1885, and is fast approaching the snowiest winter ever. They can try and say it is cold and snowy because of Global Warming but most will laugh in their faces…
The CO2 level continues to rise and therefore according to the models we should see a continued record of new high temps not 4th highest or 2nd highest since whenever the starting point was designated. Ergo the models are not matching reality.
As far as the ice on the Great Lakes it is interesting to see that the arctic ice levels appear to be peaking below last year and below 2012 as well when the summer ice levels did reach a low. Last summer of course the area of arctic ice rebounded. This did not extend into an increase in arctic winter ice this year as you can see on the arctic ice pages Anthoney provides. Also there appears to be only so much cold air to go around as the DM artic temp graph shows a warmer temp plot than the last few years this winter. When the cold air moves south the arctic air warms also. This bulge of winter cold air was smacking into GB and Europe the last couple of years and they lucked out this year. ( because energy costs so much more there)
Psalmon-
any research on how fast Lake Superior warmed up during the MWP? Any research on how much the Great Lakes ice cover decreased during the MWP?
Skies appear to be clearing from the north over Michigan; should be able to visually see all the lakes in another couple of hours:
http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/satellite/displaySat.php?region=DTW&itype=vis&size=large&endDate=20140305&endTime=-1&duration=2
Root website here: http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/satellite/
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What is consistent – the onset of a new ice age? (/mild sarc)
(BTW I laughed when I first read your comment.)
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It all depends on if the wind kicks up and literally ‘sweeps’ some of the thinner ice off the lake closer into shore … ppl not familiar with Lake Michigan ice formation may be thinking that ‘freeze over’ results in a smoothed, even surface, when in reality the shorelines see ice ‘packed’ in from the wind blowing (resulting in the term we used to describe it: ‘pack ice’).
A few weeks ago my Dad related how they were seeing 50 MPH gusts and I noticed at the time that Lk Mich had opened up some near the center part of the lake …
I speaking as a ‘veteran of the winter of 1978-1979’, having spent that winter right down on the lake at “Chalet on the Lake” (a small resort community) located on the shore of Lake Michigan, some miles south of St Joseph.
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I think global warming has made the Great Lakes less wet. They’re drier now. And I think, ’cause they’re less wet, they freeze over easier. The wetter the lake the harder it is to freeze.
it’s already march now but it’s still -30C with windchill!
Speaking of ice…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2572681/Niagara-Falls-comes-frozen-halt-AGAIN-subfreezing-temperatures-freeze-millions-gallons-water-normally-flow-Falls.html
We are switching over to Daylight Savings Time (DST) this Sunday. That should increase the solar influx to the lakes ====>
http://greatlakesmapping.org/great_lake_stressors/5/decreased-winter-ice-cover
According to the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project or GLEAMp, one of the main stressors The Great Lakes face as a result of Climate Change is a decrease in winter ice cover.
The mechanism is a bit surprising. If you read the second sentence:
“””Decreased winter ice cover
Winter ice in Lake Michigan
Changes in the extent and duration of winter ice cover may influence lake levels via water loss through evaporation. Loss of lice cover earlier in the spring can lead to higher water temperatures by affecting the onset of summer warming. Overall, the spatial extent of Great Lakes ice cover has decreased by 71% in the past 40 years.”””
It is actually the “loss of LICE cover in the early spring that can lead to higher water temperatures”
Who woulda guessed? I would have have put my money on Hiroshima bombs.
[The mods will refrain from re-correcting the source’s typo. 8<) Mod]
Yes, that year 1979 keeps popping up. Add in the demise of the AMO cycle and upcoming solar slumber and that other year,1910, will be a more common comparison.
Hard winters are hard on everything. I spoke with my brother in central Wisconsin. The snow in the country is a couple of feet deep with crusty layers that do not support an adult humans weight…. or a deers weight. It makes it difficult for the deer to move around to find fresh browse on bushes (leaf buds and tender twigs) or to dig down through the snow to get to ground food sources. As a result, much of the northern tier US is likely to report significant winter kills in the deer herd this year.
He plans to spend the next few days using a tractor to get around the fence rows and wood lots on his mother-in-laws farm and a chainsaw to cut down smaller trees that encroach on the fields. This provides fresh browse for the deer and compacted tractor trails that let them move about to get to the food. It’s a job that has to be done anyway but doing it now provides fresh food for the critters at a critical time. After snow melt, the tree trunks are cut up for next winters firewood.
The ‘open hole’ in roughly the southern third of Lk Michigan is starting to be visible through the cloud cover as seen in this visible-light-image sat loop:
http://www.aviationweather.gov/adds/satellite/displaySat.php?region=DTW&isingle=multiple&itype=vis
Anything that is ‘clouds’ moves, if light-colored or white, it’s snow or ice, if dark it’s open water … note also the ‘cracks’ in various areas particularly in the northern quarter of Lk Michigan.
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I looked for date of maximum ice in 1979… found details for 74-75 and 78-79
Great Lakes ice cover, winter 1974-75 / George A. Leshkevich,
Ann Arbor, Mich. : U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Research Laboratories, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, 1976.
lots of graphs, images by month;
direct link to pdf :
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015004590058;view=1up;seq=1
Summary of Great Lakes weather and ice conditions, winter 1978-79 / B.H. DeWitt
Boulder, Colo. : U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Research Laboratories, [1980]
direct link to pdf :
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112075640398;view=1up;seq=5
Bob
Just looking at the graph, there are 20 years above average and 20 years below average (depending where the starting point is) Guess there is not any climate change in the area of the Great Lakes. 🙂
Gail Combs says: March 5, 2014 at 4:56 am
Russia wants the Ukraine because of the rich farmland. Unfortunately the country has a choice between the Russians and the IMF. One is as bad as the other IMHO.
Feb 24, 2014 Ukraine Issues Arrest Warrant for President
Ukraine’s acting government issued a warrant Monday for the arrest of President Viktor Yanukovych, last reportedly seen in the pro-Russian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, accusing him of mass crimes against protesters who stood up for months against his rule.
Have you heard of the “IMF’s four steps to damnation”
see – http://www.theguardian.com/business/2001/apr/29/business.mbas
They have a written plan for every country.
Vik Yanuk’s crimes may be from the protest groups own snipper, as per leaked phone call.
http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/
but nothing new.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/unknown-snipers-and-western-backed-regime-change/27904
But maybe Russia just wants the gas bill paid.
>>>Miller added that Ukraine managed to redeem only $10 million on Wednesday from a total debt of $1.529 billion. He said that Ukraine’s debt would rise by $440 million on March 7, a deadline for payments. In other words, as of this moment the Ukraine already owes Russia $2 billion, or about double what John Kerry announced to much fanfare, the US would provide the country with in terms of aid.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-05/ukraine-wont-pay-russia-gas-has-billions-obligations-due-europe-promises-aid-money-i
The doomed Scottish ski industry in the Nevis Range Ski Resort says it might stay open for SUMMER skiing after having so far received snow fall for 59 consecutive days.
Being from here in Michigan and surrounded on 3 sides by these Great Lakes, and setting some record lows for the Month of March, I’m not surprized.
Here’s and interesting article I found from February 2012 predicting an ice age in 2014.
“Forecasters predict that a new ice age will begin soon. Habibullo Abdusamatov, a scientist from the Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences considers that the sharp drop in temperature will start on the Earth in 2014.”
“According to the scientist, our planet began to “get cold” in the 1990s. The new ice age will last at least two centuries, with its peak in 2055.”
http://russia-ic.com/news/show/13717
I recall seeing one or two (maybe more) deer who had been struck (car hit deer) along I-39 into central Wisconsin (up to Stevens Point) 3 or 4 ‘Falls’ ago … has the situation gotten any worse since the roads are ‘open’ and the open country side is not?
The deer seem rather ‘thick’ (plentiful?) and not so afraid of humans in the Kalamazoo MI area just a few years back; I stumbled upon a small ‘pack’ on an early morning walk one day down a less-traveled cul-de-sac just outside the city.
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Jeff Norman says:
March 5, 2014 at 8:10 am
“We are switching over to Daylight Savings Time (DST) this Sunday. That should increase the solar influx to the lakes ====>”
Yes!! Daylight Savings Time was one of the many brilliant ideas developed by our climate science geo-engineers to prevent “abnormal” winter lake ice accumulation. More daylight, more solar radiation! Brilliant!!
Next up – this summer, climate science geo-engineers will release a billion mirror finish rubber duckies into the Great Lakes in an attempt to cool the upper midwest…
\sarc
And to think it was global cooling that carved the great lakes to begin with.
I just left Lake Ontario this morning… up there quite a bit until next winter on a big work project at a nuclear plant. It was awesome to see, but I really wish there WAS some global warming (at least until my project is done). This Mississippi boy isn’t designed for that kind of weather.
Reporting from Ice Station Zebra… 🙂