# The Great Lakes just set a record for lack of ice



## detroitjim (May 9, 2016)

Most years, by January the majority of the Great Lakes are so cold they look like a scene from "Frozen." This year, that's not the case.
In fact, the Great Lakes are currently dealing with record low ice. According to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), the Great Lakes total ice coverage right now is sitting at 3.9%. This same time last year, it was sitting at 11.3%, and the year before at 18.5%.
The previous record low for this date was 5% back in 2002.









https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/weather/great-lakes-record-lack-of-ice/index.html


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## murdermittenkid (Dec 27, 2009)

Wait for it.......


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## bheary (Dec 29, 2010)

Damn keystone pipeline haha

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk


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## detroitjim (May 9, 2016)

In a few weeks we'll be hearing from these folks.









We won't be able to launch our boats ever again. This ice will never melt.


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## Quack Addict (Aug 10, 2006)

It was only a year or 2 ago that the Great Lakes were experiencing record high ice coverage, for several years running.

Guy at work told me the other day that the current record high water conditions on the GL's are because of the polar ice caps melting. He appeared to be serious but blew me off when I questioned the basis of his theory. Kind of funny as I mentioned that non-scientific relationship somewhere a few years back in jest.

My .02 is the 'extra' water we are seeing adds thermal mass to the watershed, so it takes more time to warm and cool the lakes than during times of lower water levels. 

The lakes were about this high back in the early-mid 80's. It's all cyclic.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Sure the thermal mass takes time to cool off but when weather is above freezing most days that can't be it...


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## june bugger (Oct 28, 2015)

there is no global warming


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## DirtySteve (Apr 9, 2006)

sureshot006 said:


> Sure the thermal mass takes time to cool off but when weather is above freezing most days that can't be it...


It is the autoshows fault. Every year we used to have the detroit autoshow in early January. It was always the coldest ******* week of the year. Single digit temps for all the peeople who travel here from California so they could gripe about what a miserable place this is. This the second year of no autoshow in January and it has been pushing 40 degrees that week. I am convinced we would have 90 percent ice coverage on great lakes if we brought it back.


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## snortwheeze (Jul 31, 2012)

All the people on the water with flooded homes probably are thankful !


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## Scout 2 (Dec 31, 2004)

In 1998 I fished Lake Mich all winter long no ice in the river at Saugatuck or on the beach. Only time I have been able to do that


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

The Great Lakes ice cover is up to 9.1% as of 6pm today. What a difference just a couple ice making days make.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

It's at 37.7% now. Definitely making up for a slow start to ice season.


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## cotote wacker (Jun 12, 2012)

Just a couple degrees from below freezing.......


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

Up over 42% ice cover as of yesterday.


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## Quack Addict (Aug 10, 2006)

The Thames River (England) froze this year for the first time in 50 years. I heard on the radio that the Artic has added something like 250,000 square miles more ice coverage this year compared to the last several.


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## jiggin is livin (Jan 7, 2011)

What’s up with Lake Ontario? Doesn’t freeze for schitt and you just don’t ever hear much about it.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

jiggin is livin said:


> What’s up with Lake Ontario? Doesn’t freeze for schitt and you just don’t ever hear much about it.


Ontario is a lot like a shorter Lake Michigan without the Bay of Green Bay and Bays de Noc. It's a deep trench, and the deeper the water, the longer it takes to freeze. It actually has an average depths deeper that Lake Michigan and is second only to Lake Superior. Ice forms in the shallow areas and then usually the wind helps blow that ice out to the deeper parts of the lakes to start the growth. With Erie and the western basin being really shallow, the prevailing winds help the central and eastern basins ice up. But with Ontario, the shallow part is on the east end, so it doesn't get this help. Basically the ice mostly stays packed on the eastern end most years.


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## pikeman1 (Jan 15, 2009)

piketroller said:


> Up over 42% ice cover as of yesterday.
> 
> View attachment 752767





piketroller said:


> Up over 42% ice cover as of yesterday.
> 
> View attachment 752767


Here is a satellite pic of superior from Wednesday, doesn’t look iced up to me.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

pikeman1 said:


> Here is a satellite pic of superior from Wednesday, doesn’t look iced up to me.
> View attachment 752919


The ice cover definition they use doesn’t require things to be locked up or even continuous sheets of ice for that matter. If there’s slush floating around like ice cubes, it’s counts. The wind switching directions has a big influence on the coverage number. For instance the ice coverage actually decreased slightly yesterday from the 42.2% value from Tuesday after the coldest 24 hour performance the Great Lakes region has seen this winter. Yes, we made more ice yesterday, but the wind moved what’s there around enough to have more open water surface area.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

Almost up to 46%. Getting really close to the 53% average peak ice cover over the last five decades.


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