Daily Satellite fly over

The Satellite does the fly over daily and takes a nice shot of Lake Superior. Often blocked by clouds but sometimes very clear.

You can see the ice still in the bays and inlets. But the lake itself is all open and free of ice. The lake level is below average still and likely due to alot of evaporation in the wintertime.

When I study a map or satellite shot I look at the different areas on the picture and can visualize those areas I've visited. Black Bay way north of Thunder Bay or the tiny Copper Harbor at the tip of Upper Michigan. Chequamegon Bay is still locked in tight with ice but I got a report today that there is a bit near Long Island that is open.

And for those looking for more images:

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/modis.cgi/modis?region=s&page=1

You just have to love NOAA!

And this, not politics but science reported by the Duluth News Tribune this week:

For the past generation, Lake Superior has been warming even faster than the climate around it, according to a study by several professors at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Attributed to reduced ice cover because of milder winters, the warming has caused the lake's "summer season" to begin about two weeks earlier than it did 27 years ago. "It's a remarkably rapid rate of change," said Jay Austin, an assistant professor with the Large Lakes Observatory and Department of Physics at the UMD, who co-authored the study with UMD.