Great Lakes Are Really, Really Frozen

Reversing a trend in recent years in which the Great Lakes don't freeze nearly as much as they once did, the lakes are now 91 percent frozen.

Satellite photos compare ice cover on the Great Lakes
this March and last. Click on the image to make
it bigger and easier to see.  

That's near the record of 94.7 percent set in 1973, according to LiveScience.

It's not clear whether we'll break that record since temperatures are expected to warm up a bit over the next few days in parts of the Great Lakes region.

Blame that persistent jet stream pattern that has kept Arctic air flowing over the Great Lakes all winter.

In fact, the Great Lakes more often than not were in the core of the super cold blasts that kept coming down from the North Pole this winter.

Though not set in stone, the iced over lakes, and the fact the ice will slow the warming of the water in the spring, might mean the cold Great Lakes might contribute to some chill on land in parts of the Midwest and Northeast this spring.

We'll have to wait and see on that.