Free-For All Friday: Polar Vortex, Lake Erie Ice & Winter Stats

I won't belabor the Polar Vortex talk.  Its been played quiet enough everywhere. Check out my last post for my thoughts on its misuse earlier in the week.

First, the Lake Erie ice cover update:

Over the last week, we have DOUBLED the ice cover concentration. January 4th, Lake Erie was at 44%. By January 10th, the number was just south of 90% which is way ahead of last year and slightly ahead of January 2011 and 2001; fairly close to January 1996.  The MODIS high resolution visible satellite image illustrates this increase perfectly. First image is from January 4th, second is from January 9th.

January 4th

January 9th

Back in 2011, I took a photo from the E 55th marina after the lake froze over. Notice the railing in the foreground. Compare that to a photo I took on January 4th after strong winds sprayed the lake water on the shoreline which froze everything on contact including the railing.

 A few more close up photos from along the Cleveland shoreline.

Contrary to what you might think, this winter in northern Ohio hardly cracks the top 40 coldest winters through the first week of January. Remember the hard winters of the early 2000s?