A warm start to the winter season has left the Great Lakes virtually ice-free and with their lowest ice cover to kick off a new year in at least 50 years.
On New Year’s Day, only 0.35% of the Great Lakes were covered in ice, the lowest on record for the date, and well below the historical average of nearly 10% for this point in winter, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).
This year’s missing ice in the Great Lakes adds to a growing trend of winter ailments plaguing the US, from dwindling snowpacks in the West to an ongoing snow drought in the Northeast, all becoming more common due to warming temperatures from the climate crisis.
Next year, we’ll probably see catastrophic algal blooms, as the cold at least killed off a lot of it. Next year, it will have a massive head start. Microcystins and hypoxic water will kill wildlife and poison the drinking water.
I can’t pretend to predict the future but I imagine scientists everywhere are in a perpetual state of “oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.” Waiting to see what happens and how bad it’s gonna be.
It’s gonna be bad. Real bad
We reap what we sow and we been sowing this for decades.
This current melt is also due to localized factors, like the El Nino event we are going through, making the climate-change-induced ice reduction greatly exacerbated. Ice on the Great Lakes has been declining for 50 years.
Just as no Congressperson should be bringing in snow alls to refute climate change, we should also keep in mind that weather and climate are vastly different things.
Remember to bring this up in a couple years when Republicans are talking about how the ice is back so climate change isn’t real.
Oh well, did all i could afford and the government demanded more by increasing the cost of living…pushing me in the reds with an employer that can’t afford to increase the wage.
Good luck y’all…i just stuck around to watch it all burn, so maybe i do get lucky in the end.
if your employer can’t afford to pay a living wage, the business should not exist, tho he is most likely just lying to you for those record profits.
also, it wouldn’t really impact you if rich people stopped taking private jets everywhere, and cruise ships shut down…
Show me a business that’s actually doing well within cycling range and i’ll probably apply for a job there, if it’s within my skillset.
My current job is far too boring and i hate having to “look busy” for 6h a day because i’d rather use that time to work on myself, interests and skills.
Meanwhile, She’ll just won Advertising awards for their GReEn EnErGy ad$.
Whata time to be alive lol
I never thought that in 10 years, we’d go from one of the coldest UP winters I’d ever seen to one of the warmest. This was my first Christmas and New Years in 30 years where I didn’t see snow on the ground. It’s sad to see.
I worry how this will mess with the following seasons. With the lack of ice, the lake levels drop faster because the water can evaporate. Pair that with liquid water’s darker color, means it will heat up faster and evaporate that much more water.
The lack of snow means we’ll have lower spring runoff than normal. So the lakes won’t get replenished as spring arrives. This could send us into drought conditions really quickly.
All of this will lead to plummeting lake levels. I wonder if it’ll reach the levels from 2007-2012.
Scientists 40 years ago - “The Earth is going to start warming and it’s gonna cause issues”
40 years later
Issues - Exist
The media - “wHaT iS hApPeNiNg!?!?!?!?”
