For the second consecutive winter, bitter weather threatens
to turn the surface of the Great Lakes into a vast, frozen plain.Nearly 81 per cent of the lakes' surface area was covered with ice, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory reported Friday.
That was down slightly from more than 85 per cent the previous day — a glitch that probably happened because strong winds broke apart some ice and created open spots detected by satellites, said George Leshkevich, a physical scientist with the lab in Ann Arbor.
But with forecasts calling for frigid weather at least
through the end of the month, the ice cover may keep expanding, he said. It's
grown rapidly as temperatures have plunged this month, nearly doubling over the
past couple of weeks.Records show the lakes' most widespread freeze was 94.7 per cent in 1979. The ice cover topped out at 92.2 per cent last March.
Significant portions of the lakes typically froze over decades ago, Leshkevich said, but the frequency of severe winters has declined since the late 1990s.
"Two almost record-setting years back to back would be very unusual," he said.
Source: CBC...More...
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