What are the Great Lakes like during Winter?

[Taverner]

Cold obviously...but besides that?

I flew over them recently and thought they were spectacular, especially from that height. And large swaths of ice covering these ocean sized lakes (or at least parts)

So on the ground level, what are they like?

[Poiuyt]

1. Do you mean the lakes themselves, or the land around them?

[Taverner]

2. Both

I'm assuming there be some wicked ice fishin on them thar lakes...

[Poiuyt]

3. I think most ice fishing is done on the smaller inland lakes

Not much of an ice fisherman myself, so I don't really know. As to how the water is, just ask the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

You will get a lot of lake effect snow off the lakes in the winter. When it's cold and the wind is coming off the lakes, it can be pretty brutal. I used to live in Milwaukee, and when you're on the shore and looking out over Lake Michegan, it can seem like you're looking at the Siberian landscape.

[Blue Diadem]

8. They do ice fish on Lake Erie. Every year there are rescues

when the winds come and blow the ice apart and carry people away from shore.

There's at least a few of those each year.

edited to add link:

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?s=6067634

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?s=6146801

[GOPisEvil]

4. Three words: Lake Effect Snow

:scared:

[GOPisEvil]

7. Like YOU know anything about that - dufus!

signed,

Madrone (in disguise)

[GOPisEvil]

12. I see the pictures!

I'm skeered. ;)

[GOPisEvil]

14. Don't worry.

I'll protect you. ;)

signed,

Madrone (in disguise)

[GOPisEvil]

15. That makes it all worthwhile.

:7

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. You don't even know what snow looks like, looser. I'm series!11!

Lake Effect Snow is HUGH!1!!!1!

[GOPisEvil]

21. Yeah, I only know FIB snow.

Downstate FIB snow at that.

[yvr girl]

5. There wouldn't be any ice fishing

It's never cold enough, long enough for these lakes to freeze over.

[Callalily]

6. Here's a pic

of Lake Michigan that I took last March.


Yes, ice fishing is done on the inland lakes. Lake Winnebago just finished it's sturgeon season.

http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/

[GenDem]

9. Like this -- at the tip of Lake Ontario

[AshevilleGuy]

19. How deep is that snow now?

If we get over 6 INCHES here, our power goes off and every thing shuts down.

[GenDem]

22. I don't live in Oswego

I'm in the Rochester area, so I'm not sure how much of the 6 - 7' are left. I saw a picture today of Rte 11, which runs north from Oswego to Watertown and I've never seen anything like it. The snow was so high on the sides of the road -- it had to be 30 - 40 feet. It looked like a tunnel cut through the snow. I've looked for the picture on the internet, but haven't found it.

[AshevilleGuy]

23. Well, thanks.

What if it gets warm there all of a sudden? Could happen soon, it's March after all.

Or maybe I am thinking about March in NC...

[GenDem]

24. It was around 35, today.

So we haven't seen a significant warm up just yet. I do believe that there could be some localized flooding when all that snow melts. If it happens fast and if it's compounded with spring rains.

I saw a news broadcast that showed this place in Oswego called the snow dump. It's where they bring all the truckloads of snow that they have removed from the streets. It is not expected to completely melt before August.

[achtung_circus]

10. It's not "good" ice.

There is a lot of wave movement, the ice never really forms solidly. It's cold and grey.

[MichiganVote]

11. They are beautiful but in a different way from the summer.

In the summer the sand can get incredibly hot to walk on to get to "your" spot. In the winter, the sand will whip into your face, clothes and shoes on a windy day. In the summer the water can be placid or testy or just plain rough. People like it anyway they can get it. Sometimes in the summer the storms that brew out of nowhere are stunning. In the winter the storms can be like giant brooding beasts that just stand over the coast and piss out snow. Or they can be horrendous, huge waves that pile ice upon ice at the shoreline. Naturally the lakes have what appears to be serene calm days when nothing much is happening but that can change in less than an hour.

Every year some fool thinks that the lakes are forgiving and will walk out onto the piers, slip, fall into the water and be dead in short order. No mercy. Or some will assume that the mountains of frozen waves that can extend out from shore for a 1/4 mile or more are safe to walk on. Little do they realize that the shoreline ice mounds will move, people do step into space and also drown/freeze to death.

So I guess you could say that the lakes are a little like a beautiful but dangerous liaision.

[Swede]

13. They're only so so in winter.

Not bad in spring.

[1gobluedem]

16. They are awe-inspiring

Not as friendly as in the summer but beautiful and majestic just the same. Frozen waves, ice stretching out to the waterline; just gorgeous.

[KamaAina]

17. Frozen solid

Years ago, I worked in Chicago, in the area that would now be called "River North" but at the time was just "way too far east of Michigan Ave." My office/mag tape archive (told you it was years ago), had a partial view of Lake Michigan. Which was nice. Until the lake froze over. For the rest of the winter, it was like being on Ice Station Zebra. :scared:

edit; punctuation

[Deep13]

20. Cleveland (Erie): windy, cold and overcast.

[Ellipsis]

25. Nature at its best and worst.

http://www.northernimages.com/webgallery/photo.php?photo=3768&exhibition=26&ee_lang=eng

http://northernimages.us/webgallery/photo.php?photo=171&exhibition=3&ee_lang=eng

http://wintercenter.homestead.com/photofeb2007c.html



... it makes you appreciate the other seasons. (what a great website)

http://northernimages.us/webgallery/photo.php?photo=1416&exhibition=21&ee_lang=eng&u=19551,9

http://northernimages.us/webgallery/photo.php?photo=270&exhibition=5&ee_lang=eng&u=19556,0

[GenDem]

26. Eerily beautiful

Or should I say Ontarioly beautiful? :rofl:

[dpbrown]

27. Majestic

Massive ice sheets piling up against the shore and 20 foot high snow drifts.

[erinlough]

28. Beautiful and dangerous

mostly they are deserving of great respect. I have lived next to Lake Michigan all my life and I have sailed and enjoyed these waters every summer. In my area no one would fish on the shores of Lake Michigan it is just too dangerous, the ice shifts constantly.

In the summer We have a swift and dangerous undertow which can take you out to deep cold water in the blink of an eye. People do fish for salmon in the spring but it too is a dangerous pass time because the water stays just above freezing late into the spring. We still do it, but you make sure you have a good boat.

I have been in visual sight of a pier fishing and saw a storm coming. We barely made it to the pier heads in time to get in, the waves went from flat to 8 feet at the channel mouth.

All and all I would never want to live anywhere else, and I can't fathom why anyone would want to live away from the water. The only thing that would make this area better would be mountains. I love the mountains.

[CharmCity]

29. Gray on gray. Except...

when it's sunny. Then the sky is deep blue and the snow is sparkling white.
Sometimes, you don't see pavement for weeks.
When it warms up, the snow turns brown. The streets crack. Lots of potholes.

People are covered in layers of clothes for months.

I used to x-country ski across the bay in Lake Erie -- very cool. Solid, flat ice for miles, punctuated occasionally with little huts usually containing one or two very drunk ice fishermen. The holes they drill are very small, about six inches in diameter.

[BlueStorm]

30. I haven't been to Lake Michigan in a few years...

Or in the winter but I do remember when I was little how my dad took me and my sister out to see it in the winter. We all walked on the frozen ice. I do remember it being very beautiful.

Blue

[SlowDownFast]

31. Up here in da UP

on Lake Superior we just got about 2 foot of snow over the last 2 days. Snowed in.

Blizzard/Whiteout conditions. 4-6 foot drifts covering the road. Stuck snow plows. Snowmobiler's wet dream (don't forget to bring yer flask 'o brandy, either).

Ice shanty "villages" (for fishing) out in the smaller inlets/bays. Most of the Great Lakes don't completely freeze over due to currents/waves, but the bays and inlets freeze enough that some brave (or stupid) folk drive their pickups out on the ice to get to their shanties. I think I heard somewheres that the Lakes combined take about 5-6 trucks a year due to this. That's not mentioning snowmobilers who venture too far on the thin ice.

Marquette (Northern Michigan University - Go Huskies!) just had their annual version of the Iditarod, the UP 200 (240 miles) last month.

Michigan Tech University in Houghton had their annual snow sculpture contest, too.

It's been hovering around 20 degrees F lately, but last month it was -20 for several weeks.

That's winter here.

Snow, snow and snow.

And more snow.

[kwassa]

32. Fucking cold.

what else do you want to know?