Superior staying open this year?
- Thread starter zimmbob
- Start date
It's pretty much wide open, with just a tiny bit of shore ice and then the bays around Duluth and Ashland froze.
It would take a 6-10 day severe cold snap to put considerable ice on it at this point. That kind of severe cold snap gets harder and harder to produce as we get deeper and deeper into Feb and is almost impossible to produce in March. So I would say the chances of Lake Superior getting enough ice on it to significantly impact LES production the rest of this season is slim. Now if we can just get some good atmospheric conditions for LES, we'll be all set!
-John
It would take a 6-10 day severe cold snap to put considerable ice on it at this point. That kind of severe cold snap gets harder and harder to produce as we get deeper and deeper into Feb and is almost impossible to produce in March. So I would say the chances of Lake Superior getting enough ice on it to significantly impact LES production the rest of this season is slim. Now if we can just get some good atmospheric conditions for LES, we'll be all set!
-John
Lake Superior ?
John
So does lake Superior ever freeze completly all the way over?
I never really thought about it till I read this thread.
I would think its way to big.
Another reason I am interested is I just bought a cabin right on Whitefish Bay 2 miles south of the blinker light in Paradise this past October so I am near the lake every other weekend or so now.
My best guess is Whitefish Bay is about 30 miles wide to the east at Canada and the ice is frozen out maybe 1500 feet or so.
I walk and or ride my ski-doo out to the ridge of ice at the edge every time Im at the cabin and find it interesting how it allways looks different each time I check it out.
Do you think Whitefish Bay has ever frooze all the way accross to Canada?
I would think even the bay is to big let alone all of Lake Superior.
But hey I am the new guy on the lake and do just not know.
Thanks Pro
John
So does lake Superior ever freeze completly all the way over?
I never really thought about it till I read this thread.
I would think its way to big.
Another reason I am interested is I just bought a cabin right on Whitefish Bay 2 miles south of the blinker light in Paradise this past October so I am near the lake every other weekend or so now.
My best guess is Whitefish Bay is about 30 miles wide to the east at Canada and the ice is frozen out maybe 1500 feet or so.
I walk and or ride my ski-doo out to the ridge of ice at the edge every time Im at the cabin and find it interesting how it allways looks different each time I check it out.
Do you think Whitefish Bay has ever frooze all the way accross to Canada?
I would think even the bay is to big let alone all of Lake Superior.
But hey I am the new guy on the lake and do just not know.
Thanks Pro
The only way to really determine if the lake is 100% frozen over is with pretty high resolution infrared satellite imagery and that has only been around for 15-20 years, so there really is not enough data to give a complete picture, but there have been a few years when it came very close. In 2003 it got to about 98% covered.
The main problem is not so much it's size, but the fact that it is so deep and the water deeper down remains at a constant temperature of several degrees above freezing, so you always have that water melting the ice. The size does matter too though as the winds will cause any ice on the lake to move around and expose fresh water and also cause water to upwell. So there are a lot of things acting against the water from freezing, so even when it does get a lot of ice on it, that ice does not last for very long.
Whitefish Bay will freeze over in about 65-70% of winter.
-John
The main problem is not so much it's size, but the fact that it is so deep and the water deeper down remains at a constant temperature of several degrees above freezing, so you always have that water melting the ice. The size does matter too though as the winds will cause any ice on the lake to move around and expose fresh water and also cause water to upwell. So there are a lot of things acting against the water from freezing, so even when it does get a lot of ice on it, that ice does not last for very long.
Whitefish Bay will freeze over in about 65-70% of winter.
-John
Ice cold pictures..
John, years ago I walked out on the ice to take a picture of the lighthouse at Copper Harbor only to return a few days later to find it[ice] gone. The older German couple that owned the Lakeside Inn at CH told me never to crawl out there. What's your take on this?
John, years ago I walked out on the ice to take a picture of the lighthouse at Copper Harbor only to return a few days later to find it[ice] gone. The older German couple that owned the Lakeside Inn at CH told me never to crawl out there. What's your take on this?
coldbear-
I pretty much make it a point to never recommend going out on the ice. Conditions can change so fast that what I see as safe today could be open water tomorrow.
I do know that they will ice fish on Copper Harbor, but I do not know where.
I guess the bottom line is if a local tells you not to go on the ice, I would listen!
-John
I pretty much make it a point to never recommend going out on the ice. Conditions can change so fast that what I see as safe today could be open water tomorrow.
I do know that they will ice fish on Copper Harbor, but I do not know where.
I guess the bottom line is if a local tells you not to go on the ice, I would listen!
-John