Great Lakes Finally Shake Off Record Winter

After seven months of a long, cold winter, the Great Lakes are free of ice. During one of the coldest recorded winters ever recorded, the ice cover on the Great Lakes set a record: 92.19%. By mid-April, still more than 38% of the Great lakes were still covered in ice. The last time ice on the Great Lakes lasted this long was back in 2003 - 11 years ago.

Meteorologists say that this past winter does not even compare to past winters which have been considerably warmer. The cold winter and prolonged presence of ice on the Great Lakes created problems for industry in the region. The shipping and steel industries in the area, which both rely on transporting materials on the water, experienced setbacks throughout the spring thus far.