On the North American Great Lakes, ice cover usually peaks in late February or early March. But currently, the lakes are nearly ice-free.
On the North American Great Lakes, ice cover usually peaks in late February or early March. But currently, the lakes are nearly ice-free.
Typically in late winter, ice sprawls across more than 40 percent of the lakes, but at present, ice cover stands at just around 4 percent. For the past half-century, ice cover has trended down as winters have grown warmer, declining by a quarter on average since 1973. At the same time, ice season has shortened by nearly a full month.
This year, El Niño fueled an especially warm winter, and in February, ice cover reached its lowest level on record. “We’ve crossed a threshold in which we are at a historic low for ice cover for the Great Lakes as a whole,” said NOAA scientist Bryan Mroczka.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
A satellite image of the Great Lakes on February 24, 2024. (Photo Credit: NASA)
