The top pic. is a MODIS satellite picture of Lake Michigan. This was the first day since the government shutdown that we’ve had these pictures available. It was partly sunny in Wisconsin. The Arctic air moved over Lake Michigan and we see that lake-effect clouds form quickly. You can see ice in Green Bay and there is some ice along the shorelines.
This is a picture from the GLERL camera at Michigan City, Indiana. Look at the “pancake ice” that has formed.
Here’s Muskegon – where there is ice out past the lighthouse and ice in the channel.
Here’s a pic. from the lighthouse at S. Haven. I watched a video from this camera and the ice was moving slowly backwards – up the channel – due to the strong west wind.
I found a smidgen of sunshine here on the Alpena camera (from NOAA Coastwatch). As of midnight, Alpena had a very significant 23″ of snow on the ground at the airport. They are 7.2″ above average snowfall to date and 25.6″ ahead of last year to this point.
This is Lake Michigan ice extent…shooting upwards at a relatively rapid clip with this Arctic Air. Looks like we’re up close to 35%. Here’s a look at historical ice on Lake Michigan:
Here’s Great Lakes maximum ice extent by year. Here’s the maximum ice extent for recent years and the date we had the maximum extent: 2018 69.0% on Feb. 11, 2017 19.4% on Mar. 14, 2016 33.8% on Feb. 14, 2015 88.8% on Feb. 28 and 2014 92.5% on Mar. 6. For the last five years, the average maximum ice extent is 60.7%. That compares to a long-term average of 55%.
Also: The high temperature Tuesday of 50° at Skagway, Alaska was 70° deg. warmer than the high temperature in Bemidji, Minnesota (-20°).
