Year to yearIt’s a little bit cold in the frame of this image tonight. However, it’s pretty clear th

Year to yearIt’s a little bit cold in the frame of this image tonight. However, it’s pretty clear that the current winter is no where near measuring up to how cold it was last winter. In January and February of 2015, temperatures plummeted across North America consistently, locking the area around the Great Lakes in an Arctic Deep Freeze. By the end of winter in 2015 Lake Erie was about 95% frozen. This year, it has stayed around 10%.Ice cover on these lakes is a major contributor to the weather in the surrounding area. When the lake water is exposed, it evaporates, creating a water supply that can cause lake effect snow downwind of the lakes. We’re getting plenty of that today, since it’s cold and windy over these unfrozen lakes. When the lakes freeze over, evaporation nearly stops, cutting off lake effect snow (and in fact, keeping the lake levels higher throughout the year).-JBBImage credit: NASA/NWS/Tom Nizolhttps://twitter.com/TomNiziol/status/697442395177295873Reference:http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/glcfs-ice.php?lake=e&type=N&hr=00 -- source link

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