Including an overview of the St. Lawrence Seaway (which had its latest closure ever because of early ice buildup) and a look at what icebreaking operations look like during the "closed" season.
As someone living downwind of Lake Erie in the Buffalo area, the lake's ice coverage is widely followed. Heavy snow squalls from the lake can impact travel.
Once ice covered, Lake Erie snow squalls diminish considerably. Lake Ontario, on the other hand, is much deeper than Erie and never freezes over. So lake effect snow squalls west of Lake Ontario are more severe. Snow accumulation of 1-2 feet per day is common in areas around Watertown NY.
Very interesting, thanks. I'm from Europe, so I only learned about the system of Great Lakes and the canals reaching all the way to Atlantic late, and I'm still fascinated by it. 3700km!!
Exceptional breakdown of how early ice can throw off teh whole system. The part about 7,527 square miles of ice in six days on Lake Erie really puts it in persepctive, like watching a fast forward time lapse. Spent time near the lakes and seeing these cutters in action is wild. Really appreciate the detail on why the Coast Guard needed to hold back Mackinaw for buoy removal, it's these logistics that most people dont think about.
Well done, as always. I will send this to my brother in law who was US Coast Guard in the early 70s. He worked mostly Wisconsin and Michigan.
Thanks Rick!
As someone living downwind of Lake Erie in the Buffalo area, the lake's ice coverage is widely followed. Heavy snow squalls from the lake can impact travel.
Once ice covered, Lake Erie snow squalls diminish considerably. Lake Ontario, on the other hand, is much deeper than Erie and never freezes over. So lake effect snow squalls west of Lake Ontario are more severe. Snow accumulation of 1-2 feet per day is common in areas around Watertown NY.
Very interesting, thanks. I'm from Europe, so I only learned about the system of Great Lakes and the canals reaching all the way to Atlantic late, and I'm still fascinated by it. 3700km!!
Exceptional breakdown of how early ice can throw off teh whole system. The part about 7,527 square miles of ice in six days on Lake Erie really puts it in persepctive, like watching a fast forward time lapse. Spent time near the lakes and seeing these cutters in action is wild. Really appreciate the detail on why the Coast Guard needed to hold back Mackinaw for buoy removal, it's these logistics that most people dont think about.
Time to expand the Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway systems to Neo-Panamax size.