Lake Superior Ice Coverage Update

This frigid weather is getting in the way of our exercise program.  It was so brutal out yesterday that exercise partner (Lois Fite) and I just could not do it.  Today is going to be even colder.  It was -11 degrees this morning when I woke up.  Temperatures may not get above zero today.  The wind is supposed to die down, so the lake effect snow may finally slow down.  It has been snowing here for the last two days -- hard.  I'm not sure how much we have received, but I would say many inches perhaps another foot of snow.

In the picture below taken looking north out my front window, there is not as much drifting so the level reflects actual snow depth.  My eagle statues are more than three feet tall.  You can barely see the tops in front of the trellis.  Not pictured is the drift on the south side of my house, which is now around 11 feet tall.

Most of the recent NOAA satellite images of Lake Superior are clouded over, but this past Sunday one image shows that most of western Lake Superior was ice covered with open water north of Grand Marais.

This week the bitterly cold temperatures have made a difference.  Yesterday morning the lake was 90 percent ice covered.

This morning NOAA estimates that Lake Superior is now almost 92 percent ice covered.

 

Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake with much open water right now.  In total the Great Lakes are over 86 percent ice covered.

 

The increase in Lake Superior ice coverage and the air temperature above the lake are shown in the charts below.  As you can see in the second chart, the air temperature has consistently been well below freezing for most of 2015.

CITES:
http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/modis.php?region=s
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/glcfs-ice.php?lake=s&type=F&hr=01