Great Lakes Ice Cover Reaches ‘Historic Low’

(NASA/Getty Images)

A warm winter in the midwest has caused the ice cover on the Great Lakes to hit a historic low for the middle of February, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Bryan Mroczka, a physical scientist who works for NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, told the Detroit Free Press. “We are at a historic low for ice cover for the Great Lakes as a whole.”

He added, “We have never seen ice levels this low in mid-February on the lakes since our records began in 1973.”

The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, or GLERL, maintains the Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis, which is a digital map of the surface temperature and ice cover of the Great Lakes produced each day.

“We’ve seen a steady decrease in #GreatLakes ice cover in recent weeks & we are now at a historic low for mid-Feb.,” GLERL wrote on social media this week. “Current GL ice cover is at less than 3%! Lakes Superior, Michigan & Huron are all at historic lows; Erie & Ontario are tied w/ historic lows.”

The ice cover on the Great Lakes was previously measured to be about 5.9% just last week.

NOAA warns many local businesses in the Great Lakes area “rely on ice fishing and outdoor sports which can only happen if the ice is thick and solid. Some fish species also use the ice for protection from predators during spawning season, and there’s increasing evidence that the ice plays a role in regulating many biological processes in the water. Shipping schedules are heavily impacted by the formation of ice, as well.”