Lake Superior nearing first complete ice-over since 1996

[Nye Bevan]

A frigid Northland winter is pushing Lake Superior toward a complete ice-over for the first time since 1996, although there’s still a ways to go before you can skate from Duluth to the Soo.

Lake Superior had at least some ice across an estimated 91 percent of its surface as of Thursday, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

That compares to the 40-year average annual Lake Superior ice coverage for February of just 30 percent.

......

The widespread ice in January and early February this year “wouldn’t have been anomalous back in the ’70s or with some of the winters in the mid-’90s. But it certainly has been a while since we’ve seen this much ice this early,” Leshkevich told the News Tribune.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/290890/

[cui bono]

1. Can we get Michele Bachman to walk out to the center and check it out?

Make sure it's really solid?

[Politicalboi]

2. I like that

We'll tell her Obama's "real" birth certificate is out in the middle of the lake.

[cui bono]

3. omg... let's plan a Tea Party rally there! Set up a website and FB page

too bad only tens of people show up to those things. If it were thousands the ice would be as cracked up as they are.

We could tell them to have BBQs and let them burn a few Dems in effigy to speed things up a bit.

[Godhumor]

4. For my industry, this news has been awesome

The majority of waterborne dry commodity in the Great Lakes originates at the Head of Lakes on the western end of Superior. The major bottleneck has always been the draft at the Soo. More ice now means better water levels come opening of the locks.

Good times.

[riverwalker]

5. so we can do this

Hikers make rare visit to ice caves of Lake Superior

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/lake-superiors-ice-caves-offer-glimpse-of-natures-fleeting-beauty

?hash=c371d726b57e068fc178bd2f2fc771ee

[Nye Bevan]

6. Wow. I always yell at my kids not to stand under icicles.

But that is so cool.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Bitter cold turns caves on Great Lakes into stunning ice sculptures – in pictures

Bitter cold turns caves on Great Lakes into stunning ice sculptures – in pictures

It’s been so cold for so long in the midwest that the Great Lakes are almost completely covered with ice. The last time they came this close was in 1994, when 94% of the lakes’ surface was frozen. As of Thursday, ice cover extended across 88%, according to the federal government’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor

Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 14 February 2014 10.50 EST



People walk past a cave at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin. The
caves are usually accessible only by water, but Lake Superior’s rock-solid ice cover is letting
people walk to them for the first time since 2009. Photograph: Brian Peterson/AP



More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2014/feb/14/great-lakes-frozen-in-pictures

[hfojvt]

8. I remember when it froze in 1996

the word then was it was gonna take a long time to unfreeze.

Wrong.

I also remember in the 1970s hearing that we might be heading in to "the next ice age".

I used to joke in the 1990s that maybe the next ice age and global warming would hit at the same time and cancel each other out.