Satellite image of Georgian Bay ice cover as of January 15, 2023

The Great Lakes are seeing record low ice amounts for this time of the year due to warmer-than-normal winter temperatures across the basin so far.  NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) keeps track of the ice cover percentage each day and has built a database of average ice cover, record high ice cover and record low ice cover. Warm temperatures are continuing to hold back ice growth and could bring new record low ice amounts for mid-January.

• Lake Superior has only 2.4% ice cover right now compared to a long-term average of 12.3%
• Lake Michigan only has 3.5% ice cover now compared to a typical amount of 14.3%
• Lake Huron only has 4.4% ice cover compared to a usual 22% coverage in mid-January
• Lake Erie has an incredibly low amount of ice cover with only 3.4% compared to the long-term average ice cover of 34% by mid-January
• Lake Ontario is very near the lowest amount of ice on record for January 12

Read more here.