{"id":104472,"date":"2026-02-04T02:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104472\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T02:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:30:15","slug":"ice-coverage-surges-across-great-lakes-lake-erie-over-95-covered-in-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/104472\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice coverage surges across Great Lakes; Lake Erie over 95% covered in ice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Winter has officially tightened its grip on the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n<p>The latest numbers released on Feb. 3 confirm what many Michiganders have felt. Ice coverage across the Great Lakes has surged, driven by a recent blast of Arctic air.<\/p>\n<p>As of Tuesday afternoon, total ice coverage on the Great Lakes stands at 48.42%. It&#8217;s a significant jump that places this year well ahead of historical averages for early February.<\/p>\n<p>While the system-wide average nears 50%, the amount varies wildly depending on which shore you&#8217;re standing on.<\/p>\n<p>The shallowest waters are nearly solid, while the deep basins are just beginning to catch up.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the official ice coverage statistics as of Tuesday afternoon:<\/p>\n<p>Lake Erie:\u00a095.33%Lake Huron:\u00a077.49%Lake Ontario:\u00a037.23%Lake Superior:\u00a034.31%Lake Michigan:\u00a033.33%<\/p>\n<p>The standout is undoubtedly Lake Erie. With coverage now at 95.33%, the lake has effectively transformed into a frozen sheet.<\/p>\n<p>This extensive ice cover acts as a &#8220;lid&#8221; on the lake, which will likely shut down the heavy lake-effect snow bands that have plagued western New York and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ice-cover-feb-3.png#.png\" alt=\"ice-cover-feb-3.png \" height=\"479\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                NEXT Weather\/CBS Detroit<\/p>\n<p>Lake Huron is also posting impressive numbers at 77.49%, likely shutting down lake-effect into the Thumb. Meanwhile, Lakes Superior and Michigan are lagging but growing steadily.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lake Superior sits at 34.31%, and while this percentage is lower, the sheer volume of ice on Superior is massive.<\/p>\n<p>Historically, Great Lakes ice cover typically peaks in late February or early March, often averaging around 53% for the season.<\/p>\n<p>To be sitting at nearly 48.5% in early February suggests this winter could go down as a &#8220;high ice&#8221; year, but only if our cold continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This stands in stark contrast to the volatility seen in previous years, including the record lows recorded in early 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, we are watching a potential shift in the jet stream that could bring milder air into the region by next week.<\/p>\n<p>If temperatures moderate, we could see some of this thinner ice, particularly on Lakes Michigan and Ontario, break up or retreat.<\/p>\n<p>Please remember, no\u00a0ice is 100% safe ice. With currents shifting beneath the surface and temperatures fluctuating, people should exercise extreme caution before venturing out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winter has officially tightened its grip on the Great Lakes. The latest numbers released on Feb. 3 confirm&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,262,260,38411,20958,15765],"class_list":["post-104472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-great-lakes","tag-lake-erie","tag-lake-michigan","tag-lake-superior","tag-winter-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}