Lake Erie Ice

Lake Erie has really started to acquire some lake ice over the last week or so, and since this morning we had several hours of clear skies the visible satellite could be used to determine the ice cover. The ice is starting to hamper lake effect a bit especially in the Ohio Snow Belt, as the shallower western basin as always is freezing first. Also, a note of caution: DO NOT TRY TO VENTURE ONTO THE ICE! IT MAY LOOK SOLID BUT IT IS NOT, IT HAS ONLY BEEN THERE FOR A WEEK AND A HALF AT MOST AND IT HASN'T BEEN COLD ENOUGH TO FREEZE IT THICK ENOUGH FOR PEOPLE TO WALK ON IT! You can see that clearly because the ice north of Ashtabula was clinging to the lake shore but the warm south breezes we have experienced over the last couple of days was enough to push the ice out over the lake, and with a couple of warm, rainy, windy days this ice is going to become thinner and move around even more. Here is a good site to track the ice daily and see how thick it is. (Note how everything over lake Erie is classified as "Thin Lake Ice" so again do not try to go out on it)