noaaprogrammer says: March 6, 2014 at 8:38 pm Would there be any way to get ice-breaker information – showing the paths made through the ice.
Yes, I covered in some depth here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/17/anthropogenic-influences-on-lake-ice-coverage-ice-breakers-waste-heat-dams-etc/
Per this comment: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/17/anthropogenic-influences-on-lake-ice-coverage-ice-breakers-waste-heat-dams-etc/#comment-1570824
“Two scientists from NASA and NOAA have developed a new space-based technique for monitoring the ice cover of the Great Lakes that is so accurate it can identify a narrow channel of open water cut through the ice by an icebreaker — even at night.”
“The new method, co-developed by Nghiem and his colleague George Leshkevich of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Ann Arbor, Mich., not only corrects that problem, it also gives a more accurate analysis of ice characteristics, such as whether the ice is dense or full of bubbles, and whether it has melted and refrozen.” http://climate.nasa.gov/news/998
However, I have not yet come across real-time imagery based upon Nghiem and Leshkevich’s method, which was introduced in October, 2013: http://www.iaglr.org/jglr/release/39/2013.05.003_leshkevich.php
Until then, this site shows the locations of the large ships currently on the Great Lakes: http://ais.boatnerd.com/
If you uncheck the buttons on the right you can see just the Coast Guard Ice Breaker locations.
RACookPE1978
Editor
March 6, 2014 10:28 pm
All are reminded that the Great Lakes, and the other fresh water inland lakes like Russia’s Baikal, are NOT included in the NSIDC’s Sea Ice Total reports.
They have also told me that the Antarctic’s permanent ice shelves around that continent are NOT included in the southern sea ice extents either.
Is it known whether there have been any changes in the ice extent assessment procedure over time? Both Lake Superior and Lake Erie, which freeze over the most often, push up against 100% repeatedly before 2000, but only reach a maximum extent of ~95% after that. Given that they have now been sitting at that extent for a good while this year, while the other lakes have continued to build ice, one wonders if there has been some change in the scoring system at around 2000.
The historical trend of lake temperature would be a good reference, to see if the lakes are approaching ice-up faster or slower than previous years, or when they hit their summer peak is it warmer or colder than previous years. They have one for each lake, 5 years of temperatures in one plot, here is Lake Michigans. http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/statistic/avg-sst.php?lk=m&yr=0
Charlie
March 7, 2014 6:22 am
@ Michael Palmer
Both Lake Superior and Lake Erie, which freeze over the most often, push up against 100% repeatedly before 2000, but only reach a maximum extent of ~95% after that. Given that they have now been sitting at that extent for a good while this year, while the other lakes have continued to build ice, one wonders if there has been some change in the scoring system at around 2000.
I don’t think the lack of 100% ice cover is due to a change in measurement procedure. Most likely it is due to polynyas or similar phenomenon keeping small areas of water open. Unless we get an extended period of no wind with continued low temperatures it is unlikely that the lakes will achieve 100% ice coverage. In places where there is a continuous offshore wind, the wind will push ice away from the shoreline leaving small patches of open water. Between the wind and water currents moving the ice around you will almost always end up with some open areas of water, even when the temperature is cold enough to freeze things very quickly.
CRS, DrPH
April 13, 2014 9:04 pm
The icing over of the Great Lakes is having wide-spread repercussions in the Jewish community this Passover!!
Fish markets typically spend this time of year preparing hundreds of pounds of whitefish for their Jewish customers to mix with onions and carrots for gefilte fish recipes handed down by grandmothers and mothers.
This year, however, Chicago-area fish suppliers are dealing with panicked cooks after a shortage of whitefish has left many scrambling to prepare the traditional, if not sometimes dreaded, menu item for Passover, which begins Monday evening.
Robert Schuffler, 97, has worked at Robert’s Fish on Devon for more than half a century and owned it for decades. “The amount of people that came in, they want eight whitefish, 10 whitefish. If they’re good customers through the year, we give them two whitefish. … It’s never been like this. Never.” The shortage comes after ice on the Great Lakes kept fishermen from sending their boats out for a catch usually available in abundance this time of year, said Mark Holey, a project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-04-11/news/chi-passover-cooks-face-rationing-of-whitefish-20140411_1_whitefish-fish-markets-ira-kirsche
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2014/04/26/3440671/lake-superior-ice-causes-shipping.html
Lake Superior ice causes shipping delays
The Associated Press
April 26, 2014
DULUTH, MINN. — Thick ice on Lake Superior is causing shipping delays, with about 60 ships waiting to enter the area, according to the Coast Guard.
The ships are “certainly not delivering the raw material at the frequency that the facilities need,” said Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic services for the Coast Guard at the Soo Locks between Lakes Superior and the lower lakes. “That’s put a drain universally on steel production, power production, grain shipments, and many other industries that suffer as a result of that.”
Lake Superior is still about 60 percent ice covered, Gill told Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/1mK972v). Three heavy ice breakers are escorting convoys of five ships across the lake, where wind-blown ice is still 8 feet thick in places.
The season’s first trip from Duluth to lower Lake Michigan took two weeks. It normally takes less than three days. Some steel mills and power plants around the Great Lakes have run low on supplies of iron ore and coal.
Gill hopes convoys will only be needed for another week to 10 days.
CRS, DrPH
May 9, 2014 11:04 pm
A ship built for the ocean, coming from Brazil, was no match for icy Lake Superior this week. And so it was for the Diana, the celebrated first saltie in Duluth for the season that was rudely welcomed late Wednesday by ice — just outside of the shipping canal — that rendered it stuck twice. http://www.rivertowns.net/content/first-saltie-needs-help-through-ice-0
Stuart
May 22, 2014 12:16 am
Does anyone know the latest date in any year in the past, that Lake Superior still contained ice?
The Marquette Mining-Journal reports that according to some forecasts, the ice may last until July: “To many area residents who suffered through one of the worst winters on record for the area, seeing the ice chunks on the lake every day is a continuing reminder of that wintry grip of Mother Nature, which still has yet to completely loosen,” the paper noted on its website.
CRS, DrPH
June 15, 2014 10:10 am
Lake Superior FINALLY ice-free as of June 12, 2014!!
The Great Lakes are officially — and finally — free of ice.
One of the coldest winters on record covered most of the Great Lakes with ice, including an entirely iced-over Lake Superior, and it’s taken a while for it to melt.
But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration CoastWatch declared Thursday that the Great Lakes total ice cover finally reached 0%.
This year was the longest ice has been seen on Lake Superior in 40 years of NOAA records.
The Great Lakes hit the second-highest ice coverage on record on March 6 with 92% of the five lakes covered in ice. Temperatures in the Great Lakes region averaged 7 degrees below normal from Jan. 1 to April 1, according to AccuWeather Global Weather Center.
The last time ice coverage lasted almost this long was in 2003 when the last ice melted on May 29.
More than a third of the Great Lakes remained covered in ice by mid-April this year, and that caused problems for shipping. The Coast Guard was out on the lakes breaking up ice from early December through spring.
With ice just now gone, water temperatures are unseasonably low for this time of year, with temperatures as low as the 40s. Low lake temperatures will have a big impact on summer weather in communities along the Great Lakes, including Milwaukee. Forecasters say lower-than-normal water temperatures on the Great Lakes could lead to more widespread fog and less severe weather.
If Chicago’s lakefront has felt more like San Francisco lately, that’s one more thing you can blame on the polar vortex.
Chicagoans might have imagined they saw the Golden Gate Bridge rising out of the fog downtown this week. Following several consecutive foggy mornings, Chicago has had 32 hours of fog and low clouds this month — quadruple normal levels, according to the National Weather Service.
The moisture and chilly air are another lingering effect of the past winter, which was the coldest December to March on record, and the third snowiest winter, Senior Meteorologist Gino Izzy said.
Sub-zero temperatures covered a record 93 percent of Lake Michigan with ice this winter. That left the lake colder than ever this far into summer. The mid-lake reading east of Milwaukee was only 40 degrees on Tuesday, compared to an average temperature of 62 for the last week of June.
CRS, DrPH
July 7, 2014 4:45 pm
It turns out that the thick ice cover and heavy snows were good for our Great Lakes!
“The higher lake levels are definitely benefiting boaters,” Stevenson said.
Especially those carrying weighty cargo.
Last month, for instance, the higher water levels meant that one laker leaving from Duluth, Minn., was able to take 2,300 more tons of iron ore onboard than at the same time last year, according to Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers’ Association. Nekvasil estimated that the extra cargo, when turned into steel, would be able to make almost 3,000 more cars.
“Thank goodness we have more water here, because we really need to make up the cargo we lost,” said Nekvasil, pointing out that record-breaking ice cover this winter also slowed Great Lakes shipping down considerably.
The cold snap that has descended upon Chicago can be felt most keenly in the water of Lake Michigan, where temperatures are well below normal for mid-summer.
Ricky Castro, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Chicago office, said the water off some Chicago beaches is in the upper 50s. That’s quite a bit chillier than the usual summer readings in the 70s, and is a legacy of the brutal winter endured by the region.
Philip Willink, senior research biologist at the Shedd Aquarium, said some fish species that thrive in the cold have made a comeback this year.
“We seem to see a resurgence of the cooler water fish like the yellow perch, and we’ve had one of the best coho salmon years we’ve seen in a long time,” he said.
MILWAUKEE – The effects of our extremely cold winter can still be felt in Lake Michigan.
“The water temperature this year is averaging quite a bit below normal,” said Steve Hentz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan.
The average temperature as of Friday should have been 64 degrees. It was closer to 57.
“[It’s because] of the colder winter that we had, in addition to the much greater than normal ice cover. Spring was also cool and summer here – now, we’ve warmed up a little bit, but we’re not really having a hot summer. In general, it’s due to the cold temperatures we’ve been having ever since winter.”
The difference is even more dramatic when you go back a couple of years.
“In 2012 and 2010 we had Lake Michigan temperatures around 75 degrees and right now we’re in the mid to upper 50s, so we’re almost 20 degrees cooler than we were just two years ago,” said Hentz.
This graph shows how infrequently there is any Great Lakes ice at this time of year.
CRS, DrPH
December 3, 2014 10:33 pm
We have skim ice on inland lakes in Illinois, and the Great Lakes are showing record-early ice buildup.
Ice is already starting to develop on Michigan’s Great Lakes. This is the earliest ice on some of the Great Lakes in at least 40 years.
According to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, on November 20, 2014, three of Michigan’s Great Lakes had ice starting to form. Lake Superior and Lake Michigan were one-half percent ice covered, while Lake Huron had one percent ice. Lake Erie was not reporting any ice as of Nov. 20, 2014.
Decent early season ice coverage records date back to 1973. Last Friday was the earliest date that all three Great Lakes already had ice since the better reporting of early season ice began.
The Siberian Express that’s imported northern Russia’s weather into North America is leading to a second year of fast-growing ice cover on the Great Lakes, setting up the Chicago area for the possibility of another cool spring.
By Wednesday, the Great Lakes were 85.4 percent ice-covered, just above the 85.2 percent on Feb. 18 last year, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. With below-average temperatures predicted for at least the next week, the lakes could approach last year’s levels of 92.5 percent ice cover, the second-highest level since records began in the early 1970s.
philohio
February 23, 2015 8:50 pm
Frozen lakes = cool summer.
CRS, DrPH
March 1, 2015 2:44 pm
Ice coverage on Lake Superior, Huron and Erie is at 95 percent or more, and ice coverage on the Great Lakes was recorded at 88.8 percent Saturday, according to NOAA CoastWatch, which is a little more ice than at this time last year, WZZM reports.
All the ice has made for another unpredictable shipping season in the lower Great Lakes, with some ships requiring icebreaker assistance to make it through, the Observer reported.
Last year went on record as having the second-highest percentage of ice coverage on the Great Lakes since records began in the 1970s, topping out at 92.5 percent on March 6, the Weather Channel notes.
Ice on the lakes delayed the shipping season and kept ice breakers busy last year, which cost the economy more than $700 million and nearly 4,000 jobs, Lake Carriers’ Association said in January, and also forced vessel operators to spend an unexpected $6 million last spring to repair ice damage on their ships.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-lake-michigan-ice-coverage-20160216-htmlstory.html
Lake Michigan might look frigid and icy around the edges, but it’s nothing compared with last year. A recent cold snap increased the amount of ice on the lake, but overall the mild winter has kept the lake free of extensive coverage.
As of Tuesday, about 16 percent of Lake Michigan was covered by ice, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab. That’s below average for the lake, normally around 27 percent.
Jia Wang, an ice climatologist at the research lab, said the reason for the low ice coverage is a combination of multiple weather phenomena impacting the Great Lakes, including El Nino.
As a result, Chicagoans could see more of the beach in the coming years, as low lake ice can cause more evaporation during the winter. The ecosystem and shipping industry also could see effects.
CRS, DrPH
December 16, 2016 7:51 am
Chicago Tribune article about “Arctic sea smoke” over Lake Michigan:
Smoke on the water. It’s not just a song lyric — it was hovering over Lake Michigan this morning.
Called arctic sea smoke or sea fog, this phenomenon happens when a mass of very cold air (about 3 degrees at the Harrison-Dever Crib, approximately 2.75 miles offshore at 9 a.m. Thursday) blows over warmer water (35 degrees at the same location). It’s similar to what happens when a football player removes his helmet, and “smoke” appears above his head during a cold game.
This process is aided by wind, which was gusting over the lake near 30 mph Thursday morning. “Winds are out of the west, from the land to the lake, driving cold air out over Lake Michigan,” National Weather Service Chicago meteorologist Ricky Castro said. “If winds were calm, then the effect might not be as dramatic.”
Two years ago, after the polar vortex set the Upper Midwest into a deep freeze for a second straight winter, scientists thought the weather phenomenon could reverse a 15-year stretch of diminished lake levels and reduced ice cover in Lake Michigan.
At first, they appeared to be right. Ice coverage across the Great Lakes reached 92.5 percent in 2014, the highest on record since 1979. With the widespread ice coverage acting as a capstone for evaporation, Lake Michigan water levels rebounded 3 feet between 2013 and 2015, an unprecedented surge from record low lake levels in 2013.
But two consecutive mild winters marked by light ice coverage and retreating lake levels are giving researchers pause. Though Lake Michigan water levels are expected to stay above the historic average through the next six months, some experts say the significant abnormalities dating back to 1997-98 — when one of the strongest El Ninos ever was recorded — may indeed be the new normal.
An El Nino is an irregular climate pattern characterized by warming ocean and atmospheric temperature, and typically generates unseasonably warm conditions during the winter months across the U.S. The 1997-98 El Nino brought widespread drought to parts of North and Central America and record-breaking rainfall and flooding to places like the West Coast. Most recently, another strong El Nino was in effect in 2015-16.
Mods – virtually all the pages on this site are currently on federal shut down and a lot of what was running was not being updated. Are there anyother reference sources for the great lakes that show as much detail?
WUWT, perfect! Just when I was wanting to know what the Great Lakes were doing. Voilà here you are with a ‘Great Lakes Ice Page…..
Cool!
Would there be any way to get ice-breaker information – showing the paths made through the ice.
noaaprogrammer says: March 6, 2014 at 8:38 pm
Would there be any way to get ice-breaker information – showing the paths made through the ice.
Yes, I covered in some depth here:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/17/anthropogenic-influences-on-lake-ice-coverage-ice-breakers-waste-heat-dams-etc/
Per this comment:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/17/anthropogenic-influences-on-lake-ice-coverage-ice-breakers-waste-heat-dams-etc/#comment-1570824
“Two scientists from NASA and NOAA have developed a new space-based technique for monitoring the ice cover of the Great Lakes that is so accurate it can identify a narrow channel of open water cut through the ice by an icebreaker — even at night.”
“The new method, co-developed by Nghiem and his colleague George Leshkevich of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Ann Arbor, Mich., not only corrects that problem, it also gives a more accurate analysis of ice characteristics, such as whether the ice is dense or full of bubbles, and whether it has melted and refrozen.”
http://climate.nasa.gov/news/998
However, I have not yet come across real-time imagery based upon Nghiem and Leshkevich’s method, which was introduced in October, 2013:
http://www.iaglr.org/jglr/release/39/2013.05.003_leshkevich.php
Until then, this site shows the locations of the large ships currently on the Great Lakes:
http://ais.boatnerd.com/
If you uncheck the buttons on the right you can see just the Coast Guard Ice Breaker locations.
All are reminded that the Great Lakes, and the other fresh water inland lakes like Russia’s Baikal, are NOT included in the NSIDC’s Sea Ice Total reports.
They have also told me that the Antarctic’s permanent ice shelves around that continent are NOT included in the southern sea ice extents either.
Is it known whether there have been any changes in the ice extent assessment procedure over time? Both Lake Superior and Lake Erie, which freeze over the most often, push up against 100% repeatedly before 2000, but only reach a maximum extent of ~95% after that. Given that they have now been sitting at that extent for a good while this year, while the other lakes have continued to build ice, one wonders if there has been some change in the scoring system at around 2000.
That’s when they needed to “fix” things…
The historical trend of lake temperature would be a good reference, to see if the lakes are approaching ice-up faster or slower than previous years, or when they hit their summer peak is it warmer or colder than previous years. They have one for each lake, 5 years of temperatures in one plot, here is Lake Michigans.
http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/statistic/avg-sst.php?lk=m&yr=0
@ Michael Palmer
I don’t think the lack of 100% ice cover is due to a change in measurement procedure. Most likely it is due to polynyas or similar phenomenon keeping small areas of water open. Unless we get an extended period of no wind with continued low temperatures it is unlikely that the lakes will achieve 100% ice coverage. In places where there is a continuous offshore wind, the wind will push ice away from the shoreline leaving small patches of open water. Between the wind and water currents moving the ice around you will almost always end up with some open areas of water, even when the temperature is cold enough to freeze things very quickly.
The icing over of the Great Lakes is having wide-spread repercussions in the Jewish community this Passover!!
The Canadian ice service has an interesting plot of how late the ice is hanging on this year on the great lakes. The plots only go back to 80/81 so not a long record but this year may not have had the peak ice level but clearly it has had the highest average and longest lasting ice levels.
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/CVCHDCTGL/20140428180000_CVCHDCTGL_0007639788.pdf
as well as how high the average amount of ice has been.
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/CVCHACTGL/20140428180000_CVCHACTGL_0007639790.pdf
and last the comparison to normal ice levels.
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/CVCSWCTGL/20140428180000_CVCSWCTGL_0007639786.pdf
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2014/04/26/3440671/lake-superior-ice-causes-shipping.html
Lake Superior ice causes shipping delays
The Associated Press
April 26, 2014
DULUTH, MINN. — Thick ice on Lake Superior is causing shipping delays, with about 60 ships waiting to enter the area, according to the Coast Guard.
The ships are “certainly not delivering the raw material at the frequency that the facilities need,” said Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic services for the Coast Guard at the Soo Locks between Lakes Superior and the lower lakes. “That’s put a drain universally on steel production, power production, grain shipments, and many other industries that suffer as a result of that.”
Lake Superior is still about 60 percent ice covered, Gill told Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/1mK972v). Three heavy ice breakers are escorting convoys of five ships across the lake, where wind-blown ice is still 8 feet thick in places.
The season’s first trip from Duluth to lower Lake Michigan took two weeks. It normally takes less than three days. Some steel mills and power plants around the Great Lakes have run low on supplies of iron ore and coal.
Gill hopes convoys will only be needed for another week to 10 days.
A ship built for the ocean, coming from Brazil, was no match for icy Lake Superior this week. And so it was for the Diana, the celebrated first saltie in Duluth for the season that was rudely welcomed late Wednesday by ice — just outside of the shipping canal — that rendered it stuck twice.
http://www.rivertowns.net/content/first-saltie-needs-help-through-ice-0
Does anyone know the latest date in any year in the past, that Lake Superior still contained ice?
I saw pics of ice floating, in July, last year…
Lake Superior still has considerable ice as of this Memorial Day, this article has some great pictures!
http://www.weather.com/news/lake-superior-ice-memorial-day-weekend-2014-20140526
It’s June 5, 2014, and there is still ice on Lake Superior!
http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20140604/NEWS01/140604003/Michigan-s-endless-summer-Yes-there-s-still-ice-Lake-Superior
Lake Superior FINALLY ice-free as of June 12, 2014!!
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/brrrr-ing-on-summer-ice-on-lake-superior-is-finally-gone-b99290102z1-262914301.html
The Polar Vortex just keeps on giving:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-fog-thanks-to-polar-vortex-20140627,0,895457.story
It turns out that the thick ice cover and heavy snows were good for our Great Lakes!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-great-lakes-welcome-rising-water-levels-20140707,0,257225.story
July 15, 2014, and Lake Michigan is still chilly!! The yellow perch and salmon are enjoying it!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-brutal-winter-lives-on-in-icy-lake-water-temperatures-20140715,0,4173702.story
July 31, 2014 – Lake Michigan’s cold temps are suppressing ambient temps in Chicago this summer….
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/Extremely-cold-winter-leaves-Lake-Michigan-cooler-than-normal-267022661.html
Ice is already starting to form on Lake Superior.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/ice-visible-lake-superior-weeks-ahead-schedule/story?id=26939239
This graph shows how infrequently there is any Great Lakes ice at this time of year.
We have skim ice on inland lakes in Illinois, and the Great Lakes are showing record-early ice buildup.
http://www.mlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2014/11/great_lakes_ice_cover_developi.html
Although not as impressive as last winter’s Great Lake freeze-up, I see that Lake Erie now is 94% covered in ice: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/frozen-over-lake-erie-94-percent-covered-ice-n308091
The Great Lakes Deep Freeze continues! http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-great-lakes-ice-cover-20150219-story.html
Frozen lakes = cool summer.
http://bringmethenews.com/2015/03/01/great-lakes-nearly-covered-in-ice-which-could-mean-another-delayed-shipping-season/
As follow-up to another impressive ice season on the Great Lakes, I thought that this article about shipwrecks was interesting: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-as-ice-clears-lake-michigan-shows-off-submerged-shipwrecks-20150420-story.html
Not much exciting going on with Lake Michigan during this warm ENSO winter, but this is pretty cool, I hope the video and sound open for all viewers!
Historical Annual Maximum Ice Coverage now includes 2015, see new link
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/imgs/IceCoverAvg1973_2015.jpg
Updated, thank you
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-lake-michigan-ice-coverage-20160216-htmlstory.html
Lake Michigan might look frigid and icy around the edges, but it’s nothing compared with last year. A recent cold snap increased the amount of ice on the lake, but overall the mild winter has kept the lake free of extensive coverage.
As of Tuesday, about 16 percent of Lake Michigan was covered by ice, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab. That’s below average for the lake, normally around 27 percent.
Jia Wang, an ice climatologist at the research lab, said the reason for the low ice coverage is a combination of multiple weather phenomena impacting the Great Lakes, including El Nino.
As a result, Chicagoans could see more of the beach in the coming years, as low lake ice can cause more evaporation during the winter. The ecosystem and shipping industry also could see effects.
Chicago Tribune article about “Arctic sea smoke” over Lake Michigan:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-lake-michigan-arctic-sea-smoke-htmlstory.html
The winter of 2016-2017 has not been nearly as cold as prior, the famous “ice caves” of Lake Superior are not accessible this year: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-wisconsin-apostle-islands-ice-caves-inaccessible-20170118-story.html
Interesting article about the possibility of reduced ice cover on the Great Lakes in the future:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-lake-michigan-ice-coverage-met-20170402-story.html
Anthony, this excellent article has some of the best footage of Great Lakes shipping that I’ve ever seen! Ice breakers, lock operation etc. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/us/great-lakes-ships.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Mods – virtually all the pages on this site are currently on federal shut down and a lot of what was running was not being updated. Are there anyother reference sources for the great lakes that show as much detail?
Anthony, this is at best tangential to climate, but it is an interesting article about Great Lakes changing ecology and biota! http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-lake-michigan-water-clarity-20180126-story.html
Interesting news about rising levels in Lake Superior, and the impacts when water is released into Lakes Michigan and Huron! (I hadn’t known that Michigan and Huron were treated as one big lake). http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-lake-michigan-superior-water-levels-20180709-story.html