Author(s): Raymond A. Assel; David C. Norton
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Trends in the annual maximum ice cover (i. e. the greatest fraction of the total surface area that is ice covered each winter) of the combined area of the five Laurentian Great Lakes of North America are analyzed over the 20th century. The extreme winters of anomalously low and anomalously high annual maximum ice cover extent over the past four decades are identified. An air temperature regression model of ice cover is used to reconstruct annual maximum ice cover over the first six decades of the 20th century. Cumulative normalized and 5-year running averages of the annual maximum ice cover illustrate variations and trends in the ice cover regime over the 20 Century. Trends andvariations are discussed within the context of a recent sequence of five consecutive mild winters.
Year: 2002