Understanding Lake Superior

[sanddollarsam]

HA Ha HA very funny lads however not so funny when the geese turn the dock into a poop deck thanks for the laughs anyway

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by sanddollarsam

HA Ha HA very funny lads however not so funny when the geese turn the dock into a poop deck thanks for the laughs anyway

Actually, you're right about the poop deck. I tied up to a dock in Batchawana Bay once that was completely coated with the stuff. It's as slick and slippery as ice when its damp. And stinks to high heaven!

But to be slightly serious, you are correct about fog. It's especially bad in the early months of May/June, but serious fog can happen any time throughout the cruising season.

Many cruisers on Superior use radar. I didn't, so I got used to sitting for days sometimes waiting for it to clear. Or, I sailed through it knowing that few boats were out there, so the odds of hitting anything was very low.

[GordMay]

Lake Superior is the second fastest-warming lake on the planet

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world, by surface area, and its volume is around 10 per cent of all the freshwater that exists on the planet. Many local and international communities rely on the lake for economic, cultural, and recreational reasons, but warming temperatures are threatening widespread changes to the waterbody.

A study [1], from York University reports that, since 1992, lakes in the Northern Hemisphere have been warming six times faster, than any other time period, in the past century. The situation is particularly concerning in Canada, where the researchers say that Lake Superior is the second fastest-warming lake in the world.

The study [1] looked at the ice trends of 60 lakes around the world, that have ice phenology records that were between 107 to 204 years old. The analysis revealed that, on average, all of the lakes were freezing 11 days later, and thawing nearly 7 days sooner, which was attributed to warm winters in the past few decades.

Lakes in cooler climates, such as those in northern regions of Russia, China, and North America, are experiencing more extreme changes, than lakes closer to the equator. This is because of Arctic amplification, which is the observance that air temperatures, at higher latitudes, are warming more rapidly, than those at southern latitudes, due to melting polar ice, and atmospheric circulation patterns.

There are several other lakes around the world that are also warming abnormally quickly. Ice on Japan’s Lake Suwa has been forming close to 26 days later, per century, since 1897, and is only freezing twice every decade. Grand Traverse Bay, in Lake Michigan, had one of the fastest trends of melting abnormally early, with this occurring approximately 16 days earlier each century.

Lake ice is considered to be an important indicator of the health of these ecosystems, as global temperatures warm. The researchers say that less ice coverage will create ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic consequences, due to changing evaporation rates, warming lake temperatures, decreased water quality, and more frequent algal blooms. Ice fishing and winter transportation will also be disrupted, and potentially lost, in some areas.

Indigenous communities, that rely on winter ice roads, are particularly impacted by this warming trend. Ice roads are critical for connecting remote, mostly Indigenous communities, to southern locations to have access to resources and social networks. What we found is that over the last 20 years, there's been a delay in the winter road opening season by three weeks. And that's quite significant because the only transportation option is to fly out of those regions, which is very expensive.”

The study [1] stated that ice-free years will become more common, as the winter season warms, and up to 5,700 northern lakes may permanently lose ice cover, by 2100.

“There is an urgent need for research focused on implications of losing lake ice cover, both economically and in terms of lake ecology. Accumulating knowledge of winter ecology can improve our capacity to understand the role of ice cover on lakes, and the people who depend on ice cover, before it is lost,” the study concludes.

[1] “Loss of Ice Cover, Shifting Phenology, and More Extreme Events in Northern Hemisphere Lakes”~ by Sapna Sharma et al
➥ https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley....9/2021JG006348



See also:

“Lake Superior is much more than simply a big body of water, it is an ecological engine”
➥ https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/lake_s..._is_an_ecologi

[GordMay]

Icebreaking, in the Thunder Bay area, will begin this week, with the “Samuel Risley” starting the initial harbour breakout, on Thursday (March 23), the Canadian Coast Guard said.
Data, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's CoastWatch program, shows that as of Sunday, under eight per cent of the Great Lakes were under ice cover.
An ice thickness map (below), by the U.S. National Ice Center, showed most of the ice, in the Thunder Bay harbour, was estimated to be 12 to 28 inches [± 30 to 71 cm) thick, as of Sunday.

The opening of the Soo locks, which officially marks the start of the Great Lakes shipping season, is set for this Friday (March 24/23).

As per (US) federal orders, the Soo Locks close on January 15 and re-open March 25 every year. During this time maintenance is performed on the chambers. Although there are occasional exceptions, such as ice, these two dates are pillars for shipping season in the Great Lakes. As soon as the clock strikes midnight on March 25, freighters, tugboats, luxury crafts and more can resume lockage between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

[GordMay]

The “Joseph L. Block” was the first freighter to come through the Poe Lock [at Sault Ste. Marie - the Soo] on Friday, March 22, 2024, bound for Two Harbors, Minnesota, marking the beginning of the Lake Superior shipping season. The Block motored up, from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
The smaller MacArthur Lock will stay closed until April to undergo more maintenance.

Last Sunday, March 24, 2024, it was Adam Hagen, captain of the bulker “Harvest Spirit”, who took the ceremonial top hat, as the first laker to arrive, in Thunder Bay to open our shipping season.
The “Harvest Spirit” was also the first laker vessel to arrive, at the Port of Thunder Bay, in 2023.
Captain Hagen expects to make 26 trips to the port, before the shipping season shuts down again, next winter. Owned by McKeil Marine, headquartered in Burlington, the “Harvest Spirit” was the last vessel to depart the port, last January, to close out the 2023 shipping season.
The MV “Harvest Spirit”, which arrived on Saturday evening, was loaded up with mostly canola, a load supplemented with soy beans. It has up to 16 crew members, at any given time, and was berthed in Windsor, Ont. over the winter.

Port Authority CEO Chris Heikkinen said the vessel’s arrival tied the record [earliest a ship has arrived in harbour since 2008] , for the earliest start to Thunder Bay’s shipping season, and noted the expected arrival this week of the first ocean-going vessel [a ‘salty’] will likely set a new record, by four or five days, in that category.