The all-time record for ice coverage of all the Great Lakes is 94.7 percent in 1979. But Lake Superior, the biggest of the five, is typically the last to ice over. In 1994, the last time it came close, 91 percent of its surface iced over. Lake Erie, conversely, is the shallowest of the lakes and freezes nearly every year.But the global warmers can't get past this next factoid.
On the flip side, the lowest ice accumulation across the Great Lakes occurred in 2002, when just 9.5 percent of the surface froze solid. Duluth, Minn., recently experienced 23 consecutive days of subzero temperatures, besting the previous all-time record of 22 days set in 1936 and 1963.
More weather, you drones! Climate Change IS Coming!
Once the water freezes over, it could stay cold well into summer. "Typically, the lake will start warming up in late June, but it will be August before we see that this year," Professor Austin said, adding that the "extraordinary cold" has led to ice several feet thick in some parts of the lake.
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