• News
  • Lake Facts
  • About

Lake Scientist

Flash Freeze Ices Great Lakes

0
  • by Daniel Kelly
  • — February 17, 2015

The amount of ice cover on Lake Michigan has nearly doubled in the past seven days, according to data from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. But it still has a ways to go to catch up with Lake Erie, which sits at nearly 96 percent covered.

“It’s interesting to note that this year Lake Erie is about 95.5 percent ice covered. Last year it was about 92 percent ice covered, so a little bit more this year,” said George Leshkevich, physical scientist at the GLERL to WTMJ Radio in Wisconsin. “It’s the same with Lake Ontario, which is 36 percent ice covered…and in 2014, it was 34 percent.”

great-lakes-ice-january-2015

The Great Lakes in January 2015. (Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr)

Lakes Erie and Ontario have higher ice cover this year than they had during the same time last year, which is helping to support the Great Lakes overall ice cover of 58 percent. That is a substantial covering, but comes in below the 80 percent coverage that was achieved this time last year due to the polar vortex.

Instead of a slow and steady build-up, much of the ice cover this year came about during a flash freeze in early January:

lake-erie-ice-flash-freeze-2015

Lake Erie’s flash freeze in January 2015. (Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

What more is in store for Great Lakes ice this year? The Detroit Metro Times reports that February is typically the peak of lake freezing season, so higher levels of ice may be hard to come by.

“The ice is starting to build now on the lakes, so we’ll see what happens,” said Leshkevich to WTMJ.

As for Lake Superior, it sits at about 86 percent ice cover, while Lake Huron is around 87 percent covered.

Share

You may also like...

  • ODNR studies water current’s influence on walleye hatch with Lake Erie buoy
  • “Fire Ice” Supports Life in Lake Baikal
  • Product Spotlight: Vaisala Humidity and Temperature Sensors
  • Great Lakes ice disappearing rapidly

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

FishSens SondeCAM HD
  • Recent Posts

    • Green Guidance: Forests Point the Way to Better Stormwater ManagementAugust 15, 2022
    • Orange Stream Dreams: Monitoring Acid Mine Drainage and Watershed HealthJuly 27, 2022
    • Summer 2022 Environmental Monitor Available NowJuly 11, 2022
    • Monitoring Water Pollution in Keweenaw BayJuly 5, 2022
    • Protecting Endangered Species: Conducting Mussel SurveysJune 21, 2022
  • Popular Tags

    Great Lakes research Lake Erie pollution Product Spotlight invasive species research summary Algae international runoff Lake Michigan Ohio EPA nutrient-loading temperature dissolved oxygen eutrophication toxic waters USGS ice phosphorus Asian Carp Michigan climate change list

©2022 Fondriest Environmental Inc. | Questions? Call 888.426.2151 or email customercare@fondriest.com