Weekly Update: How Much Ice is Covering the Great Lakes?

With continued arctic air spilling across Great Lakes, more and more ice is rapidly forming on them. As of January 2nd, 2018, the Great Lakes were 20.7% covered in ice per the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. At this same time last year, only 2.2 percent of the Great Lakes' surface area was covered with ice. Of the five Great Lakes, Lake Erie is the winner with the highest percentage of ice coverage at 36.01%. Its not too surprising that Lake Erie has the most ice coverage because it is the shallowest of all Great Lakes, making it more susceptible to freezing. Lake Superior, which is the largest and deepest of the Great Lakes, usually takes a longer time to develop ice for those very reasons. It currently has an ice coverage percentage of 9.88%, which is the lowest percentage of all the Great Lakes. For WeatherNation, I am Meteorologist Marcus Walter.