Northeast Ohio has been under a deep freeze since January. Cleveland, specifically, didn’t see temperatures over freezing for 18 days in January and early February — the longest such streak since the winter of 2000 and 2001. Those temperatures caused 95% of the surface of Lake Erie to freeze.
While experts warn that walking on the ice is dangerous under any circumstances, the extensive ice coverage has drawn some adventurous Northeast Ohioans to explore the surface of the lake on foot.
At Cleveland’s Edgewater Beach, Patrick Carey of Lakewood said he decided to stop off at the frozen lake to recreate an experience he had walking on the ice last year with his daughter.
“We came out probably a couple hundred feet. Now we only did it because others were doing it,’” Carey said. “I missed that memory and I was driving past and I wanted to check it out.”
Carey wasn’t the only one on the lake. Another Lakewood resident, Matt Livingston, brought the entire family out to enjoy a day on the frozen lake — though they only walked out a couple of yards.
“This is the first time coming down to the beach (this winter),” Livingston said. “This is as far out as we’re gonna to go. I just hope everybody stays safe, and hopefully (winter) doesn’t last too much longer.”
Walking on the lake’s surface is only becoming more dangerous. An 80-mile crack opened up across Lake Erie over the weekend that is so massive, you can even see it from space. The crack runs from Port Burwell, Canada all the way to Cleveland.
Meteorologists expect warmer temperatures in coming days, which will likely create even more fissures and cracks that make lake walking unsafe.