Great Lakes Ice at near-record lows

Winter 2011 – Lake Ice, photo by danbruell

The Great Lakes Echo reports that:

A composite map of the Great Lakes produced by NOAA’s CoastWatch organization shows near-historic low ice coverage across the region.

The map, known as the Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis, is a composite of data taken from NOAA satellites orbiting the earth’s poles and radar scans of the lakes by the National Ice Center. The resulting image shows surface water temperature and ice coverage, important data for region scientists, fishermen and boaters. The map’s data is updated daily.

“Previously, the lowest ice coverage year was 2002,” CoastWatch manager George Leshkevich said. “2012 came very close to 2002, and this year is looking very similar to last year.”

Lack of ice cover leads to increased water evaporation, a serious concern in light of already-low lake levels.

You can read more about last year’s ice cover and impacts on Absolute Michigan.

Check Dan’s photo out background bigtacular and see more in his Lake Ice slideshow.

More winter wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures!