Great Lakes ice season to be 'near normal'

It's going to be a near-normal ice season for the Great Lakes, according to the Canadian Ice Service.

Its seasonal outlook will be released later Wednesday.

Scott Weese, a senior ice forecaster, says this season's ice forecast is  based on the temperatures expected in the Great Lakes regions.

"At this point we have seen an early start to the season with some colder weather that's broken out across the region.  So we've seen an advanced development of ice but that has slowed in the last few weeks with some warmer temperatures," Weese said.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ice formation on Lake Superior last month was the earliest ever recorded on any of the Great Lakes since records started being kept more than 40 years ago.

But that should slow, Weese said.

"The long-term outlook does suggest that too that temperatures are going to be near normal or slightly above normal. So we don't expect the really aggressive development of the ice this year," Weese said.

Last season, a maximum ice coverage of 92.2 per cent across all Great Lakes was recorded in early March. That was the second-highest ice cover ever recorded on the Great Lakes.

The largest ice cover for the Great Lakes occurred during the winter of 1978-79, when 95 per cent of the Lakes were frozen in mid-February.

Weese doesn't expect the same this season.

"It's a forecast that is substantially lower than last year's but it does sit in the normal range from our historical climatology, our climatology starts from 1972-1973," Weese said.

Last year's record ice stranded boats and had icebreakers in both Canadian and U.S. waters working overtime into the spring.