Global Warming Update: Great Lakes Iced Over at Earliest Date Since 1930s

It must be the “polar vortex.”
great lakes ice
Coast Guard Cutter Katmai Bay breaks ice for freighters navigating through the St. Mary’s River in the Great Lakes. During winter, paths must be made in the ice for freighters to continue shipping goods. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class William B. Mitchell.

The US Coast Guard reported the Great Lakes iced over at the earliest date since the 1930s.
WWGP reported:

In the midst of record-breaking bitter cold, the U.S. Coast Guard has been relentlessly fighting against ice buildup in the Great Lakes region in an effort to keep important shipping channels open.

A massive swath of arctic air, known as a “Polar Vortex,” plunged temperatures well below zero from Chicago to Tulsa. In those temperatures, ice can form up to a foot thick in the rivers that connect the Great Lakes.

The Coast Guard uses ice cutters — heavy ships that have thick, reinforced hulls and polar ice-breaking bows — to clear the major shipping route that separates the U.S. and Canada, so that freight-carrying ships can get through. Without the ice cutters, large freighters can get stuck.

The ice cutters cut tracks throughout the channels, up and down the St. Mary’s River and through the Soo Locks. For those officers who work on the ice cutter boats, the job is far from easy.

“Some days, if you get strong wind, it will blow the track that you spent so much time building, say all day long, and it’ll blow it out of the channel,” said Lt. Commander John Henry on the Coast Guard cutter Bristol Bay. “Those days, those days are difficult.”

The Bristol Bay is one of four ice cutters that have been working around the clock to keep the shipping lanes open for freighters that use the Great Lakes and connecting channels to deliver goods between the Midwest and the East Coast. These massive ships range in length from 730 feet to over 1,000 feet — a ship that is 730 feet long can carry 37,000 tons.

The Coast Guard said it was the earliest the ice had frozen here since the 1930s, and the river connecting Lakes Superior and Huron has been some of the toughest ice they have seen. With cutting through ice, the noise is loud and constant.

Meanwhile… American taxpayers spent $7.45 billion to help developing countries cope with climate change in fiscal years 2010 through 2012.

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Thanks for sharing!