Low ice coverage extent on the Great Lakes in North America
Despite the cold weather, the ice coverage of the Great Lakes remains significantly below its average winter extent. Ice is covering only 13.91% of the surface of Lake Michigan, about 8% below the winter’s average, This is one of the lowest ice extents on record, second only to the 12.4% of ice coverage measured in 2002. Even though the cold temperatures could cause further ice formation, coverage is still likely to remain lower than the winter historical average.
This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 4 February 2023, shows the ice present in Lake Michigan offshore from the town of Racine in Wisconsin, USA.
The Snow and Ice Monitoring product provided by the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) provides data on various parameters that are key to the monitoring of snow and ice, including aggregated lake ice extent.
