Great Lakes ice cover SURPASS 2014's almost-record year?

How cold is it in your neck of the woods? Here. It's been another long cold winter!
Record setting cold- Piles of snow.
Check out the Great Lakes region-

Satellite photo from Feb. 18, showing the extensive ice cover on the Great Lakes.

As of yesterday the Great Lakes were 85.4 percent ice covered!

By Wednesday, the Great Lakes were 85.4 percent ice-covered, just above the 85.2 percent on Feb. 18 last year, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. With below-average temperatures predicted for at least the next week, the lakes could approach last year’s levels of 92.5 percent ice cover, the second-highest level since records began in the early 1970s.

It’s far from the only factor in spring weather, but a heavy and late ice season can lead to a cooler spring—and even a cooler summer, forecasters say.
“By April or May, usually the ice is gone, usually probably anywhere from early to late April,” said George Leshkevitch, a scientist with the research laboratory. “Last year, we had ice throughout May, and even lingering into June. If that happens again, we’re likely to have a cool spring.
 Ice forecasts aren’t issued for the Great Lakes as a whole, but Leshkevitch said that the longer the current cold snap persists, the more likely the lakes are to continue icing over. Although the extreme cold—setting at least one record low on Thursday—is expected to break Friday, temperatures are forecast to remain about 20 degrees below normal through at least Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

 Last year the Great Lakes froze up like this too!

Interesting too is that Lake Ontario is heavily ice covered

Frozen up: Lake Ontario saw near-record levels of ice form on Tuesday leaving just 20 per cent of open water Ice is largely uncommon on Lake Ontario, which normally sees around 11 percent cover

Lake Ontario is very, very deep and holds onto it's heat- But, Lake Ontario had no heat to hold onto from 2014. That could have something to do with the fact that this area saw the coolest spring and summer in a very long time in 2014. So, there was no real opportunity for the lakes to get warm!

More on Lake Ontario- so readers can understand just why this much ice coverage is so unusual

The difference this year as compared to last year in ice coverage really lies in Lake Ontario. As one of the largest and deepest Great Lakes, the shear volume of water makes this lake very difficult to form major ice coverage.

 Even with the record-breaking winter of 2014, it struggled to form ice coverage throughout the brutal winter. This winter is radically different with over 75 percent of the lake covered in ice!
 

Lake Ontario Ice Coverage February 18, 2015 -75.5%

Lake Ontario Ice Coverage February 18, 2014 -27.1%

And I can attest to the fact that Winter of 2014 was record breaking, bone chilling cold
Other then a slight reprieve in December- This winter has been in it for the long haul

This blast of chillin' air is not just hovering over Canada. Or the normally temperate fruit belt/wine country area of  the Great Lakes region. Oh no! This cold is chillin' all the way down to normally balmy Florida- Where Snowbirds most often flock...

Arctic outbreak shatters records in eastern U.S., coldest yet to come

Records are falling along with the temperature across the eastern U.S. on Thursday, as the coldest air of the season surges south. Friday morning’s cold promises to be even more icy, taking aim at the Eastern Seaboard from Boston to Miami.

 When combined with winds, the cold outbreak will lead to dangerous wind chills on Thursday and Friday morning. Wind chill warnings and advisories stretch from the Upper Midwest to the Deep South on Thursday — even as far as Miami, where Friday morning lows around 40 degrees could break records for the date, and will surely be the coldest air that southern Florida has seen in five years.

 Brrrrrr.....................