The clear skies over Michigan today gave us a great look at growing ice on the Great Lakes and the fresh snow over our land.

Great Lakes ice cover percentage has expanded to 69 percent. The ice cover is growing rapidly and very close to doubling in percentage in just the last eight days.

Satellite image on February 12, 2018 showing growing ice cover.

Lake Erie is 91 percent covered with ice. Lake Huron only has 19 percent open water. Lake Superior is now 77 percent covered with ice. Lake Michigan has 51 percent ice cover. Finally, Lake Ontario only has 15 percent ice cover.

This is currently the most ice on the Great lakes since the winter of 2015-2015.

The date of the peak ice cover varies every year. On average, Great Lakes ice cover peaks in late February or the first week in March. 

This year we may have our peak ice cover right around now since we have warmer temperatures coming over the next week.

This high resolution satellite image also gives you a feel for how far south the rain/snow line moved during the last two snow systems.