For only the 5th time in the past 20 years, Lake Superior has frozen over 90%.

This may seem like bad news for those who don’t like winter. However, according to the National Weather Service, it’s actually a good thing for those who enjoy sunny days.

“So once the cap goes on the lake, or the ice coverage is there, it prevents the moisture from bubbling up from the lake and producing our lake effect snow. And thus, once we reach this point in the season, the lake effect snow winds down, and also we tend to see more sunny days,” says Matt Zika, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

Although this is a good sign for sunny days, it’s not good news for warmer days.

Due to the lack of warming from the lake, we may see a tendency of colder stretches on average.

Since the thickness of the ice isn’t too deep, it shouldn’t affect the melting rate come spring.