(Toledo, OH) Lake Erie is almost completely encased in ice.
Lake Erie is now 87-percent covered in ice, by far the most on the Great Lakes. But warmer weather this week may take a temporary toll on the thickness of that ice before another cold snap this weekend refreezes and restores that ice cover.
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say ice quickly covered more than half of Lake Erie during a two-week Arctic spell between Christmas Eve and last weekend when the temperature never got above 20.
That deep freeze was compounded by the shallow water of the western basin, which cannot hold heat.
But the rapid freeze may mean the best ice fishing season on Lake Erie in three winters.