The Great Lakes

Discuss local parks, preserves and lakes here.

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Kelly
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In case you haven't seen this image yet......3 of the 5 totally frozen over! Lake Erie is the best at this little game. I'm generally not one to make personality judgements before I get to know bodies of water, but I hope she realizes that's what she gets for being so shallow! :nanana:
Amazing.

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cbobcat49
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I've always thought Lake Superior looks like a sock puppet.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. ~Henry David Thoreau
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Kelly
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And now I do too! So what does Lake Michigan look like, Chris?
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cbobcat49
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Whoah! It looks EXACTLY like................

[spoiler]Lake Michigan[/spoiler]
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. ~Henry David Thoreau
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Matt
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I guess Ontario doesn't freeze because depth and churn rate?
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Kelly
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Matt wrote:I guess Ontario doesn't freeze because depth and churn rate?
Precisely. It's tiny but feisty! Apparently, however, in 1893 and 1934 - even those factors were not enough to keep it from freezing over. See? This winter was mild, after all. ;)
So why, in this chain of five freshwater lakes, is Lake Ontario so different?
“Yeah, of all the lakes, it is a very strange lake,” laughs Jia Wang, an ice climatologist at GLERL, located in Ann Arbor, Mich.
It’s one of the more interesting lakes to study, he says, especially in what has been “a very, very interesting year.”

Among the key reasons why Lake Ontario hasn’t frozen to the same extent as the others has to do with its depth and location.
Although it’s the smallest of the Great Lakes, with a surface area of about 19,000 square kilometres, it is the second deepest, with an average depth of 85 metres.
“Depth is a big issue because the deeper the water, the more heat it can receive and store,” said Wang. “Even though Superior is deeper than Ontario the water temperature there is much lower.”
Lake Superior has an average depth of 148 metres, which enables it to also absorb heat. But being the most northwest of the Great Lakes means that even its deep waters are no match for the freezing effects of cold Arctic fronts, says Wang.
Because those cold fronts usually come down from the northwest, and Lake Ontario is the farthest east of the Great Lakes, it ends up getting less cold air than the others, notes Wang.
David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist, says the waters flowing into Lake Ontario — it is the downstream Great Lake — may be a factor in why it’s not freezing like the others.
The flow of the Niagara River, which connects lakes Erie and Ontario, “would help to circulate the water and prevent the ice from forming because there’s more agitation,” says Phillips.
“But certainly, we know that all of the waters from lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie are flowing into Lake Ontario and that would be another factor that would keep it, perhaps, a little less likely to form ice.”
Less ice coverage on Lake Ontario means the open water may result in more lake effect snow in areas such as Kingston, says Phillips.
What’s happening this year isn’t unusual, says Wang. In 1994, when 90 per cent of the Great Lakes were frozen, just 55 per cent of Lake Ontario was ice.
The highest ever recorded ice coverage, says Wang, was in 1979 when 94 per cent of the Great Lakes froze, and 85 per cent of Lake Ontario.
Phillips, however, says anecdotal evidence suggests that Lake Ontario froze completely during the winters of 1892-93 and 1933-34.....
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Read all of the article here: Great Lakes nearly freeze over completely
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Matt
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Also because I peed in it last summer when kayaking.
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Kelly
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Sorry. If it's not on your resume, we can't give you credit for it.
I am strong, because I've been weak.
I am fearless, because I've been afraid.
I am wise, because I've been foolish.

- Unknown

My NYFalls.com Team Page
Scenes from a Public Market
New York Historic
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