During the past several years, ice coverage on the Lakes has been below normal. Now, for the second year in a row…ice coverage is up:
Transcript
During the past several years, there’s not been as much ice on the Great Lakes. For the second
year in a row, there’s a lot more. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
With a colder winter this year, the Great Lakes are seeing more ice coverage. Ray Assel is a
physical scientist with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab. He outlines what he sees on
ice charts from the National Ice Center.
“Ice cover extent similar to the 30-year median ice cover. So, it’s really not that unusual.”
Last year also saw closer to average ice on the Great Lakes. But it seemed extraordinary because
of several mild winters before.
“I think what makes people think it may be unusual is because of the five winters previous to this
last winter, we’ve had below normal ice cover.”
Assel says for those who are looking for clues to global warming, year-to-year changes can vary
widely. Global warming has to be measured in decades.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.