The largest of the great lakes in the United States, Lake Superior
Lake Superior’s ice coverage has greatly surpassed expectations this year.
Earlier in the season, forecasters predicted the lake would reach a little more than 50 percent ice coverage this winter. But as of Friday, Lake Superior was over 85 percent covered, far exceeding the prediction and the lake’s long-term average of 55 percent, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, or GLERL.
This year’s frigid conditions triggered the rapid expansion of the ice that exceeded predictions, said Jia Wang, a research ice climatologist and physical oceanographer at GLERL.
[...] Earlier this week, ice coverage increased about 10 percent within 12 hours, rising from around 75 percent at 2 p.m. Wednesday to nearly 85 percent by 2 a.m. Thursday.
[...] The last time the lake ice reached 100 percent coverage was 1996, which is the only time 100 percent coverage on Lake Superior has been noted since records started in 1973, according to GLERL data.
[Updated to fix title; changed "Exceeds 90 Percent" to be "Exceeds 85 Percent". --martyb]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday March 07 2019, @03:47PM (2 children)
There have been a lot of AC-submitted "damn, the world is so cold" stories lately.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday March 07 2019, @06:45PM
Solar minimum. We're getting 0.1% less energy than usual.
Correlates to my personal non-data perception of a colder and longer winter than usual (just when the furnace has been dead for a month, which is not an emergency in SoCal).
Doesn't change the fact that this year will be in the top ten warmest years on record.
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Friday March 08 2019, @02:19PM
That's because we're all so very important and influencing our opinions is a surefire way to change the world.
Somewhat related, I just noticed that the sarcasm tag is actually supported now. Doesn't render to anything, but...