Mark Strehl Blog: How fast is the ice melting on the Great Lakes

Tuesday, we talked about the rapidly dwindling snow pack over North America. The less snow that we have, the warmer it gets - melting even more snow!

The same can be said for the melting ice over our Great Lakes. This is the second year in a row that much or most of the lakes have been ice covered. Last year on this week, 77 percent of Lake Michigan was ice covered; and 91 percent of Lake Superior and Lake Huron were covered.

This year, the Great Lakes have melted a bit faster with our big lake covered by 33 percent and Superior and Huron in the 80 percent range of cover.

Remember, the sooner the ice melts, the sooner the water warms, which makes the ice melt faster - which means the sooner we can go to the BEACH!