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Scientific concern begins over lack of Great Lakes’ ice

February 4, 2016

Scientific concern begins over lack of Great Lakes’ ice

Thursday, February 4, 2016, 2:56 PM – Ice coverage on the Great Lakes is near record-low levels for this time of year, and scientists are concerned about the effect this will have on wildlife species in the months to come.

Southern Ontario set some record high temperatures on Wednesday, February 3, 2016. For example, the afternoon high of 16oC at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport managed to beat out all other records for the day in the city going back to 1842. It was also the highest daily temperature ever recorded for Toronto in the month of February going back 174 years.

While typical February chills were interrupted by this unusually balmy day, the Great Lakes were still feeling the effects of an already unusually warm winter, with some of the lowest ice coverage numbers on record.

Back on January 11, coverage was logged at just 3.8 per cent – remarkably low, given what the previous two years were like by that time of the year, and largely a consequence of a warm December thanks to the strong El Niño pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

Since then, although there were a few days in the latter half of January where coverage actually got up into the double-digits, as of February 3, only 5.7 per cent of the lakes were covered with ice.


Credit: NOAA GLERL


Credit: NOAA GLERL
Credit: NOAA GLERL

By comparison, in 2015, ice coverage was at 50.5 per cent, while in 2014 – the year with the second highest coverage on record since 1973 – it was 71.6 per cent.

The unusually large expanse of open lake water so far this winter has been providing fuel for some pretty intense snow squalls. Looking at the current forecast for the rest of February, with a cold snap is expected going into Week 2, and then a return to mild weather later in the month, it’s likely that will continue, even with a slight rebound in ice coverage that should come during that cold snap.

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