January 16, 2018

As Houston and Atlanta deal with snow can cold again, the Great Lakes ice continues to grow.

Even with a brief thaw, another arctic surge returned. the month to date has been very cold east of the Rockies.

Even with a warm start in December, the winter to date is colder than normal.

Ice covers 32.1% of the lakes.

The last two years were in the single digits for ice on the same date.

See how much above normal the ice is.

The amount is greatest since 1993/94 for the date.

Niagara Falls has had extensive ice.

In Buffalo/Niagara Falls, the first half of winter was coldest since 1995/96.

In the northeast rivers, ice breakers are running daily to clear path for barges carry heating oil.

Even with some thawing temperatures near term, if winter part II returns with the help of polar changes in a big way, we could rival the ice coverage of 2013/14, 2014/15.