Superior still mostly ice

[johnhens]

http://www.lakesuperior.com/blogs/super ... onditions/

The Ranger III is still in drydock in Sturgeon Bay. It will be interesting to see when the Island is open.

[Donk_67]

Interesting indeed. From my vantage point, it seems we had an early start to winter and spring seems to be running 4-6 weeks behind schedule. There's still over 48" of ice depth on Little Traverse Bay in Lake Michigan...tho tomorrow's wind might break that up quite fast.

[treeplanter]

I was reading someplace, a few weeks back, that the Coast Guard thinks they'll be seeing ice well into June this year.

And for what it's worth, the Climate Prediction Center is calling for below average temps in the Great Lakes area for April.

[treeplanter]

This article tells how bad the ice is on lake Superior right now. Well worth the read:

http://www.lakesuperior.com/blogs/super ... onditions/

[johnhens]

http://www.mininggazette.com/page/conte ... l?nav=5006

[Lucky Chicken]

From looking at the satalite images it looks like the bays are starting to break up, or at least get darker. I haven't watched it before but I have been supprised how quick it appears to be breaking up!

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/webdat ... n=s&page=1

[RockRiver]

Spring breakup has indeed come to the North Country. I live east of Marquette, MI and we have melted 16" of snow in the last six days. I just went out and measured it at my post that I use as a gauge. After last Fridays storm I could only see two inches of this post. Two weeks ago the snow was an undetermined amount above the top of this post that is forty inches tall. Also two weeks ago we skiied onto Lake Superior and went around AuTrain Island. We were over a mile out into the lake when at the north end of the island and it was ice as far as you could see. Yesterday there was lots of open water. It has not been especially warm either. Mid fifties and fourtyies and freeze most nights. A few days in the sixties would do wonders. The weather station at Passage Island Light has been reporting pretty similar temperatures and winds as we have been having here, so I expect that things have been opening up on IR also.