Unusual Freezing of the Great Lakes

February 2014

Unusual Freezing of the Great Lakes

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140219075111.htm

     On February 19, Lake Superior was more than 90 percent iced over, and xperts say it may be covered completely before the end of winter. They are so frozen that someone has proposed to hike across Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron and Lake Erie are 95 percent frozen. Although none of the Great Lakes are completely frozen, the icy lakes are having a major effect on their surrounding environment. 

     Michigan Technological University's Great Lakes Research Center in Houghton has been studying Michigan's snowy Upper Peninsula. "Lake effect snow occurs when weather systems from the north and west pick up evaporating lake water that's warmer than the air, then drop it as snow after reaching land. An ice cover prevents that evaporation."
     Ice on the Great Lakes can also add to more frigid temperatures because warmer lake water will not have a chance to gauge the temperatures of those same northerly weather systems the way it usually does. However, the ice can also have positive effects. Lake Superior's whitefish and some other fish need ice cover to protect their spawning beds from winter storms. Heavy ice, therefore, will lead to good fishing.