Great Lakes Ice Remains In 85 Degree Temperatures

Hello,

I'm wondering if there is an explanation for this? It's 85 degrees out and the water is above freezing.

In spite of record high air temperatures near the lake shores of 85 degrees, and water temperatures of 36 degrees (shown in the chart below for the date in question), the lake is still spotted with ice.

Winds shifted from off shore to onshore late Sunday afternoon along the lakefront in Duluth. That produced a dramatic, near instant temperature shock for those along the lakefront as the breeze blew off the still icy lake water.

The temperature at the shore dropped from the 80s to the 40s in an instant!

link to article

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Its all in the scientific explanation that it's cold because it's hot and it's worse then we thought .Quick everyone stop breathing for 2 min. so we can save the planet from co2 a reply to: raedar

It takes a bit for such a large body of water to unfreeze... It hasn't been warm for long and if there's still ice then that's keeping the overall temperature down.

a reply to: raedar

The explanation? The ice hasn't melted yet. When it does it will turn into water. If it gets really hot, it turns into steam. Don't worry though, next winter more ice will be there.

What is so unusual about ice out in lake superior in the end of May. I have lived in the UP most of my life. I have jumped into the warm discharge tube from the power plant in may and it carries you way out and dumps you out into the water full of Icebergs. Your eyes grow huge when you hit that ice water. Sooooo...cold....gotta do it twice to get the full knowledge to never do it again.

Well that is a very optimistic out look seeing Al Gore and all the AGW ers are saying we wont make it to next year ...ok so they didn't say that but they are thinking it . :>) a reply to: Aleister

originally posted by: blindlyzack
It takes a bit for such a large body of water to unfreeze... It hasn't been warm for long and if there's still ice then that's keeping the overall temperature down.

Yep, pretty much and the surface temperatures of the lakes in total are not a set 36 degrees across the board. 36 degrees is still close enough to freezing to keep some of the ice around. We're also talking about some very thick ice in cold water. It's going to take a bit to melt and the areas that it is in is going to be slower to warm because the water will not be acting as a heat sink as those patches are covered by ice. Ice reflects sunlight which means slower warming of the lake (and slow melting).

a reply to: raedar

Up in the bitter,bitter,bitter cold north that is Wisconsin we get huge plowed snow piles. They are like mini glaciers and take some time to melt.



I am all for thinking outside of the box and looking at all the factors......BUT. Common sense must play a part in it. Here is how it works. It was a very cold and long winter what will that do? The ice is thick and the water is cold.

a reply to: raedar

That's because there is no such thing as global warming. Even the ice in Antarctica has grown. And I'm not talking about the sham photos of the alarmist taking pictures of it during the summer time.

Are the "ice balls" and the recent wall of fog also normal on the lakes up there?

In Austin a couple of months back, we had a hail storm rip through. The temperature was never below freezing and the pellets were maybe the size of deer feed or rabbit doo. The next morning there were still collections of the ice. It was not even cold! I went home for lunch that day and it was sunny and mild and there were still a few collections of ice. (I regret not documenting that).

a reply to: raedar

It was snowing here a week and a half ago, that is normal. We don't get that many hailstorms that do damage here, but we did have a few. When I was a kid, we were watching the fourth of July fireworks and there was a blizzard going on. We just went inside at my uncle Ray's house...... you couldn't see the fireworks.

a reply to: raedar



OP I live up here. It was a cold.........very,very,very,very,very,very cold winter. It is still chilly at night. We have only had a few really hot days.


When this happens the ice gets really thick. It takes longer to break up and melt.

a reply to: SubTruth

Are you a Yooper?

My theory is increased levels of pollution creating "dirty ice"
This dirty ice would be chemically different from regular ice, thus having higher melting temp. This happened with the "ice balls" the state of illinois pushed literally tons of pollution into lake Michigan causing ice balls to form, which had a higher melting temp.

Perhaps it is the same for that lake.

a reply to: raedar

It's Lake Superior FFS's, it's fairly well north, it's deep and it's cold. I was on the north shore in 2009 at Schreiber on June 1st and we had snow flakes the size of silver dollars most of the night! Woke up the next morning to an inch or two of snow on the ground, my RV didn't like it much. Go to Newfoundland, they still have snow on the ground LOL.

Cheers - Dave

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
Its all in the scientific explanation that it's cold because it's hot and it's worse then we thought .Quick everyone stop breathing for 2 min. so we can save the planet from co2 a reply to: raedar

Oh, my gosh! I think that is the number one funniest response I've every read on ATS! I'm going to be suffering from bouts of laughter for the rest of the day!
I like your idea of holding our breath for two minutes to stop co2, but I propose extending it to six minutes so we can save the entire planet!

Doesn't the water have to warm up before ice melts? Doesn't that take an extended period of atmospheric heat? Never took science, so I'm just guessing.....

That makes sense that it would take more than a day for the ice to melt in the water. We don't have that too much where I live, so the article sent me to DOOM lol! I haven't spent much time at all on that geoengineeringwatch website, just added them on fb a while back. I wonder if it's disinfo or naive like me, hmmm.....

Next time we get a hail storm at my place, I'm going to document the ice if it doesn't melt because that was definitely WEIRD.

Thanks all!

originally posted by: Luuke123
My theory is increased levels of pollution creating "dirty ice"
This dirty ice would be chemically different from regular ice, thus having higher melting temp. This happened with the "ice balls" the state of illinois pushed literally tons of pollution into lake Michigan causing ice balls to form, which had a higher melting temp.

Perhaps it is the same for that lake.

That could make sense. A chemical change in composition of water does definitely alter its freezing point. Like briny water having a much lower freezing point than plain old water depending on how much NaCL is in the water (ie. 22% NaCL in the water lowers the freezing point to almost -20 C). If it can go one way, it can go the other.

Swimming in lake Superior has always resulted in the shock and awe affect. anytime. It's friggin cold. Always.

a reply to: WhiteAlice

Exactly! But, it is just my theory. It definitely explains the mystery ice balls of lake Michigan, though.