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Saturday, March 2, 2019

Lake Superior Ice


Lake Superior ice is always changing and is always fun to watch. Sometimes it’s dramatic and sometimes it is just frozen water. As of Thursday the official NOAA announcement was that the lake was 86% ice covered. Just so you know, here are a few interesting facts about the lake.

The surface area is 31,700 square miles or 81,270 square kilometers and contains 2900 cubic miles or 12,100 cubic kilometers of fresh water, 10% of the earth’s fresh surface water. The average annual temperature of the lake is 40F (4.4C). I could bore you with more facts, but you can just look them up if you are interested. 




This winter it is getting close to freezing entirely, but I don’t think it will. While the next few nights will be sub zero Fahrenheit there will also be a strong wind that will move the ice sheets around and break them into pieces. If you like ice in your drinks, this is a good time to go get a few shards for doing so. Be sure to get one you can actually lift and be careful you don’t get hurt or fall into the water. You won’t last long if you do.




It is fun and interesting to watch the changes, especially this time of year. This is about the time of maximum ice as it takes all winter for the surface to cool down enough to freeze, but with the days lengthening and the temperatures about to start warming up it is a fleeting moment in the overall scheme of things. That makes it fun for a geek like me to watch the constant changes. 

The first one is Five Mile Rock which is, oddly enough, about 5 miles from town.




I live about ten miles from town, where I work, and about 7 or 8 miles of that is along the lakeshore. All the pictures in this entry are taken between home and work. I am also pleased to note that I don’t usually need my headlights on to go either to or from work now, although daylight saving time (DST) may screw that up a bit next weekend when we move our clocks ahead by an hour. Don’t get me started on that idiocy.

Here's one from the deck this morning. More open water due to the wind.
 For a better look at the photos just click on them to embiggen.

28 comments:

  1. gorgeous photos! you live in an interesting past of the country.

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    1. It is definitely interesting! Not as temperate as your home and that has its good and bad points.

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  2. So beautiful and so different from where I live. love seeing all the ice on the water
    Arizona never changes times, love it !

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. One of my favorite things about blogging is seeing other places around the world.

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  3. I love seasons and their charges, and you have a fantastik time of the year. Light coming and still all the bright white snow.
    But I have tulips and can run in the park så although your water is superior (!), I’m glad winter is over here (fingers crossed)

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    1. Between where you live and your travels I am always fascinated.

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    2. A bit too adventurous here now, body in the Singel last week and the.closest coffee shop was boned 05:10 last night. Safer where you are.

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  4. Ten percent of the world's fresh surface water - that's not something I ever stopped to think about before. Your photos are striking. What a beautiful drive to work!

    I'm really noticing the longer days, too. It feels like we're coming out from a dark tunnel.

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    1. I think it is third in the world in volume, but largest in surface area. Baikal and Tanganyika are larger in volume. Cape Breton is still on my bucket list. 😊 I want to see that coast.

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  5. if that is your view to and from, it must make it a helluva better day seeing the lake in all seasons!
    As for DST, just pick one and leave it there is my, and my dogs opinion🤣!

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    1. It does have a calming influence, except on stormy days. Even those can be beautiful, though. Maybe I'll rant about DST next weekend.

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  6. Jono--The different shades of white, and sometimes-subtle blue, make for gorgeous photos. Here in St. Louis we were promised 3-8 inches of snow.

    It hasn't come. Hopeful teachers all over the area try to hide their disappointment...

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    1. Thanks! What are you going to do with all that snow? Watch it melt for a few days?

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  7. We hope to get out of the polar vortex next week, after 6 weeks of freezing our asses off. Meteorologists say that this February was the coldest one Alberta has had in 40 years. The only upside is that hopefully the bitter cold will have killed off a lot of pine beetles which are currently ravaging our forests.

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    1. The cold is killing off our emerald ash borers, too! Too bad the biting insects won't be bothered by it.

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  8. The shades of blue in the lake photos are quite beautiful. Did you ski this weekend?

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    1. Thanks! No, too damned cold for anything fun outside. Just the usual farm chores and a lot of reading.

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  9. Starkly beautiful photos. I was trying to figure out the time of day when the various photos were taken. Do I see one sunrise and one sunset, or am I all turned around?

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    1. You are right! Pics mostly taken on the way to or from work, about 7:30 a.m. and about 5:30 p.m.

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  10. The wind blowing off that frozen expanse must be absolutely bone chilling. I think I feel the cold more as I get older, pretty cold here this morning -14C.

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    1. I know I feel the cold more than I used to. A few mild frostbites over the years doesn't help, either.

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  11. Thanks for the great photos! I grew up on Lake Erie and I follow their FB page of all photos of the ice dunes and ice breaking up on the lake. It is all so beautiful! I admit I miss that lake to my core, but I so don't like winter anymore. It's gorgeous in all seasons.

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    1. If I could watch winter from a tropical rainforest, I think I would.

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  12. What beautiful photos! Your drive to work might be scary in icy conditions, but it's certainly lovely. And don't get me started about daylight saving time, either. Grrr.

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    1. There have been days where one can't see the highway in front of the vehicle, let alone the lake.
      The fact that I'll have to turn on lights in the morning to feed the horses has me seething under the surface. If anyone says anything about springing forward I am likely to do something you'll read about in the papers.

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    2. I want to see the pictures of that! ;-)

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  13. That looks both beautiful and scary at the same time.

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