Why such thin ice.

[Don..SD]

Why is there such thin ice on Erie. Barg traffic, weather conditions, water current, big walleyes breaching and busting up the ice. Here in South Dakota the ice is 24 to 30 inches deep. I quess you never stop learing.

[HAWGBOY]

It's because there are so many big walleyes swimming in the big pond they create so much current?? For real it's the warm weather..

[cisco]

Don -- all five of the Great Lakes usually stay open or partly open all winter. Imagine how much cooling is needed to bring down the water temp to 32 degrees over surfaces larger than many of the states. I'd like to think there were huge walleyes porpoising about and breaking up surface ice, but it is usually the winds and currents that keep the water open.

Right now there is good ice fishing for brown trout in the small boat harbor at Kenosha, Wis., in the southern basin of Lake Michigan. However, the good ice is confined to the innermost 250 yards of the harbor. From the Harbor entrance in for about 1/2 mile, it is open, cold, life-threatening water.

The phenomenon of upwelling is also a factor. The heaviest water is 39.2 degrees Fahrenheidt. That's what you'll find at the bottom of a still body of water in winter that is deep enough to stratify. Upwelling occurs when persistent winds blow surface water away from shore and out toward the opposite shore. The process literally pulls the warmer bottom water upward and to the surface. Satellites record surface temps -- Take a look and you'll see surface water on Michigan that is much above the 32 degree freezing mark. A long enough and cold enough winter will freeze all five Great Lakes over, but that's only happened about three times since records have been kept (1860s to present).

[Xplorer]

Don
Ditto to Cisco. I work in Duluth, Minn and am looking over the blue water of Lake Superior right now. We are considerably colder than Erie, yet there has been only at most skim ice on the lake this year, despite a very cold December and pretty cold average temps (its -30 wind chill out right now) Wind blows what little ice is out there back and forth, never letting it "setup'. There has been no ice fishing on the lake, and on decent days the noodleroders are out shorefishing for Looper's. Yet the harbor and river have more ice than I've seen for years. Mother nature, she's a complicated lady sometimes!! Xplorer