Scientists Say Mostly Frozen Great Lakes Could Lead To A Cool Spring

By Lisa White in News on Feb 21, 2015 7:35PM



(Floating Ice on Lake Michigan by Alan Amati)

The Sun-Times reported yesterday that for the second winter in a row, intense weather and bitter colds have threatened to freeze the Great Lakes into a massive frozen tundra. The federal Great Lakes research laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan has discovered that 85.4 percent of the Great Lakes are covered in ice, up from 85.2 percent last year on Feb. 18, 2014.

This could lead to another cool and mild spring for us later this year. Satellite images have shown rapid growth in this year's ice cover recently, almost doubling in size the past couple of weeks. The standing record for widespread freeze was set in 1979 with 94.7 percent. We topped out last year at 92.2 percent in March after an extremely bitter winter, especially in early January of 2014.

George Leshkevitch of the research laboratory stated that lake ice is usually gone by May, but that last year it lingered into June. If this happens again, it is highly likely we'll have a cool spring. He also pointed out that with below-average temperatures set to hit next week, it could mean the lakes could approach ice cover levels similar to last year. No matter what, it's still going to be cooler by the lake for many more months to come.