The Great Lakes Are Even More Beautiful When They’re Nearly Frozen Over

The Great Lakes Are Even More Beautiful When They’re Nearly Frozen Over

For the first time since 1994 the Great Lakes are almost completely covered in ice, with only 12 per cent remaining unfrozen. And now, thanks to NASA satellites, we can look upon this icy plain and despair — except that it’s actually quite beautiful.

The average amount of ice cover for the Great Lakes is roughly 50 per cent, but this winter has blown that percentage out of the water, so to speak. NASA’s Earth Observatory just released the spectacular view from geosynchronous orbit, which shows the ice cover over the lakes on the afternoon of February 19.

Lake Superior is almost completely covered, which is what you might expect form the northernmost lake of the bunch. The surprise is that the most southern — Lake Erie — is far more icy than its northern neighbours. It turns out that there’s a good reason for this: Ontario is deeper than Erie, which makes it slower to freeze over. You can even see the shipping routes that icebreakers have had to crack through Erie’s ice cover:

The Great Lakes Are Even More Beautiful When They’re Nearly Frozen Over

One other cool detail: This ice can actually affect how much snow we’re getting. When the lakes are unfrozen, the winds blowing over them can pick up moisture and dump Lake Effect snow on the East Coast. But when they’re frozen, whipping up that damp snow is much harder. Unfortunately, NASA’s meteorologist notes, it still hasn’t stopped the continuous snowstorms pummelling us. At least it looks pretty. [NASA]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.