Great Lakes Ice 2/20/2003 - 3/09/2003

February 20, 2003March 9, 2003

The image on the left was the Earth Science Picture of the Day for February 25, 2003. The caption provided states,

"This true color, visible satellite image of the northeastern US was acquired on February 20, 3-days after record snowfalls blanketed the Middle Atlantic and New England states......Note that only the shallowest of the 5 Great Lakes, Lake Erie, has a nearly complete covering of ice."

The image on the right, dated 3/09/2003 accompanied Eric's post and link to the Reuters article published by Yahoo. In the article we read,

"Canadian Ice Service said satellite images showed that Superior and Huron froze over for the first time this year on Feb. 27, after record low temperatures, without a hint of the warming trend that is normal for this time of year."

I'm sure that the Canadian Ice Service's report is accurate, and it's clear in the images that the amount of ice in Lake Michigan increased somewhat during the 17 days that elapsed between the images, but it's hard to tell what's cloud and what's ice in Lake Superior and Lake Huron on the 3/09 image, especially if the images are true color, visible light. In fact, the whispy nature of the white return from the Lakes looks an awful lot like the clouds that covered the lakes in a lake effect snow image posted to our list some time ago. Comments? (besides "You have too much time on your hands, Kluge!")

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