Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa writes on Michigan Live about the lingering effect of historic ice extent last winter in the Great Lakes and late ice melt this summer due to that extent:
Lakes Superior and Lake Michigan are currently six degrees colder than last year. If the water continues to remain colder than normal, it could have an impact on Michigan’s winter in several ways.
Currently Lake Superior has an average surface water temperature of 47.6 degrees. Last year on this date Lake Superior was at 53.7 degrees. The long-term average water temperature on Lake Superior for October 11 is 51.1 degrees.
So Lake Superior is 6.1 degrees colder than this time last year, and 3.5 degrees colder than normal.
Lake Michigan has an average surface water temperature of 56.0 degrees, while last year at this time it was 62.1 degrees. The long-term average water temperature on Lake Michigan for October 11 is 58.4 degrees.
Lake Michigan is also 6.1 degrees colder than this time last year, and 2.4 degrees colder than average.
Lake Huron is 5 degrees colder than last year, and only 1.5 degrees colder than normal.
This map above shows current surface water temperatures on the Great Lakes. Lake Superior has a large area of water with temperatures in the 40s. (Source: Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory)
He goes on to talk about the effects this might have on winter:
A warmer Lake Superior and Lake Michigan can really have a modifying effect on bitter cold temperatures. For example, in an early season cold outbreak, Green Bay, WI may have a temperature of 20 degrees. Traverse City, on our side of Lake Michigan, may hold in the mid 30s for temperatures. I usually figure there is a 10 to 20 degree warming effect from Lake Michigan, and also Lake Superior.
But if the lake temperatures continue at this colder pace, cold air will have an easier time moving into Michigan.
So the first impact of cold water could be earlier cold temperatures in November and December.
If the lakes continue through winter colder than normal, freezing over of the lakes would happen earlier.
How does this cold fact square up in the face of claims of “hottest ever”? Is the region in for a record cold winter? It sure looks like it may be more likely due to the influence of this massive heat sink.
[headline updated for accuracy – mod]
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Use *F or *C when you are writing about climate or weather for […] sake. It is kind of a big deal.
If he says it is 43.5 degrees, anyone that doesn’t know what he means wouldn’t understand the difference anyway.
Climate Change Facts
FACT 1: ALL of the solar system planets & other bodies are/were warming. Are you responsible and guilty for the entire solar system getting warmer? SOURCE: “Hoagland Interplanetary Day After Tomorrow”. Parts 1-2-3. Dated 2004.
FACT 2: Since 1989, Pluto has been moving AWAY from the Sun. You logically expect Pluto to get colder. NO! Pluto’s temperature and atmospheric pressure is increasing, by a huge amount. SOURCE: ((Halber, Deborah. ‘Pluto is undergoing global warming, researchers find’. MIT News, Oct. 9. 2002) via Hoagland part 3)).
FACT 3: Solar system wide climate change is likely due to running through a very large hydrogen/helium interstellar cloud with varied density. High speed solar systems passing through any cloud density causes some friction. Friction creates heat. SOURCE: “NASA, Voyager Makes an Interstellar Discovery December 23, 2009”. ‘The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist’.
FACT 4: The Sun travels around the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years, at approximately 568,000 mph (2012 estimate). During that travel our solar system path encounters rouge clouds and debris from exploded stars, of varying chemical composition and density for periods of time, that can result in greenhouse effects or ice ages. Data says our heliosphere actually moves through the local interstellar cloud at about 52,000 mph. Going through varying densities of the cloud at that speed may cause changing heating/cooling periods. SOURCE: “NASA, A Breeze from the Stars, Dec 17, 2004”. ‘The sun’s magnetic field holds much of the cloud at bay, but some of the cloud’s gas does penetrate’.
FACT 5: Climate Change is politically linked to the Carbon Credit Tax Scam. Scams work when you are denied the whole truth and/or complete information. 1-Suckers are repeatedly told to feel guilty, for breathing out CO2 and other reasons they are told destroy the Earth (“A lie told often enough becomes the truth” – Lenin). 2-Then the Suckers are repeatedly told to relieve their guilt by giving $ to the scam, and are happy to comply. How does any tax scam stop solar system warming/cooling? Remember, much of this data is many years old. At 568,000 mph the Earth has moved nearly 55 Trillion miles from old data points. Time & position changes everything in this universe. SOURCE: Common Sense.
As a pilot flying out of Toledo, I get to notice that weather patterns around the area are affected by the lake. In the summer, weather coming from the west splits due to the heat given off by Lake Erie going north and or south. Usually wood county, 20 miles to the south of the lake boundary gets the heavier weather. Toledo gets spared for most of the nastier weather in the spring and fall. But with lower temperatures, Toledo sees more sever weather as well once the lake freezes, Toledo gets hit with the snow storms. Last year was a pretty snowy winter here. Given predictions based on sun spots as well seeing this, expecting a very snow bound winter here this year.
Uh oh. Must be “global cooling” time again. The summer sure went by fast this year. Seems like the climate is changing every three or four months now. It’s summer and before you know it, it’s cooling down and it’s Autumn. THEN, almost out of nowhere, it’s suddenly FREEZING cold. But just when you can’t take the cold weather any more, the flowers bloom and it’s spring.
Yes . . . . it’s “global weather changing”. That’s what I call it anyway. For 61 years I can personally attest to it happening. Global weather changing. Amazing. Every year.
Must be climate change.
http://consumerlive.me/2014/07/29/product-review-steripen-ultra/
Professor Don Easterbrook’s realistic assessment of the climate data points to a current cooling period.
There is no doubt the chances of a very cold North American winter are high. The great lakes temperature may be an indicator of what to expect this coming winter.
Good stuff here—http://www.surfgrandhaven.com/cms/
http://www.surfgrandhaven.com/cms/grand-haven-news-stories-opinions/1497847-Water-Temperature-Prediction.html
“Starting in June 2014, there were huge inflows of water through the St. Mary’s River into Lake Huron/Michigan. Given the average temperature of 38 degrees, this release was comparable to putting a large ice cube in our drink called Lake Michigan. Overall, this had the effect of lowering our average lake temperature by ten to fifteen degrees”.
aha… so no worry… the ice cube came from St. Mary’s River. So, who opened the spigot? You mean it was always flowing in to Lake Huron/Michagan… hmm. So, exactly what are you trying to tell me. Or was it just an open-ended answer with no point to it.
[MODS] Oops, The title — >
Water temperature of the Great Lakes is over 6 degrees colder than
normallast year.Read first line in the quote.
The Lakes will likely freeze over completely this year, as it nearly did last year. The lakes have never frozen as much in recorded history. Also the Antarctic Ice sheet have NEVER been bigger… EVER in recorded history.
You see, it is 6 degrees cooler because of global warming. According to the Global warming Nazis.
It needs more carbon. Throw in a few thousand burning tires with some oil.
damn it — it’s a global warming I tell you
Does in America will be a hard winter?
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat_a_f/gif_files/gfs_z70_nh_f00.gif
Must be global WARMING!
Global Warming is so evil and insatiable now it’s sucking heat out of the Great Lakes??!!
GLOBAL WARMING AKA CLIMATE CHANGE IS DEAD
I get the impression that everything we throw into the air has a cooling effect, especially pollutants. CO2 and methane are NOT pollutants and don’t appear to have the ability to counter whatever else causes cooling. Volcanic gasses and water vapor definitely cause cooling. They prevent a significant degree of sunlight from reaching and warming the ground.
The reason the left is panicking about “climate change” is that more of us are realizing what used to be called “global warming” is a hoax. The tax-happy leftists know damn well we’re in for an unusually cold winter and that it will deep-six their well-orchestrated plans for a carbon tax.
In other words, Mother Nature is sticking it to the money-grubbing leftists a couple years sooner than they expected. I can’t believe any leftist with an elementary education in the sciences related to climate change doesn’t see this emerging cooling pattern. We science buffs certainly see strong evidence of a cooling trend.
Damn that Global Warming…
I’m an Arborist, and for those with questions about acorn or fruit crops, we really don’t know why crops vary. Some varieties of Oak take 2 years for acorns to mature. There’s also something called a “mast” (fruit) year where you’ll see a super abundance of fruit. So far, there’s no certain cause and effect. Many of the theories posted here are reasonable, but there’s no definite answer.
Isn’t nature amazing. 🙂
Can they read WUWT?
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/us-2014-2015-winter-forecast/35422753
As one who lives in Michigan, all I can say is F#$$^!!!
D:
I guess all that anthroprogenic warmth must really be absorbed into the oceans… It sure isn’t in the great lakes!
Very disappointing comments this time. Thanks to those who contributed some information and science. Unfortunately, most comments were cynical and sarcastic and a waste of time. Some of that is fine…even necessary considering the absurd and brazen contentions of climate hawks (warmists), but this thread reads almost like the inverse of a Huffington Post comment thread. We need to be better than that here.
If an outsider comes here for the first time to see what it’s all about, I suspect it’s better to look like informed scientists mixed with curious truth seekers, not a bunch of jaded, political cynics with closed minds.
I have been following this website since 2007. I am no scientist… Just like to be informed. Today was my first attempt at a comment. It may have come across as sarcastic. If so… Apoligies… I thought it raised an implied scientific point… from a non scientific point of view… Again … apoligies… Now I will go crawl back under my rock.
As a relief from the Great Lakes you might be interested in what is , I suppose, the Eastern world’s closest equivalent : Lake Baikal.
The following link is to an interesting description of the alternation of stratification and homothermy (levelling of temperature) in the Lake waters during the course of the average year , given that some of the comments above refer to these effects ..
http://www.bww.irk.ru/baikalwater/temperature.html
The paragraphs are refreshingly free of any suggestion of AGW effects and the field work is attributed to scientists of both the Soviet and post-Soviet era.
It is not a science site , but for tourists , and intended perhaps to entice ( or deter ) visitors tempted to dip in the waters – ice fee from the end of May – irresistible no doubt to some of the hardier bloggers here.