As per request and feedback from members on the list, here is the latest on ice, particularly on Lake Superior. News reports over the weekend are that there are 60 (sixty) ships lined up waiting around Ste. St. Marie, MI, to try and cross Lake Superior. The Coast Guard is shepherding little convoys of 5 or so ships with ice breakers. So far, there is virtually no traffic on this end of the lake. To make matters worse, there is a 50 mph gale howling out of the NE today. That takes the ice and stacks it in windrows up to 10 feet thick which will stop a ship of any size. The Duluth harbor is usually bustling by this time of April, but today, it is a ghost town. Though breakers had opened lanes several weeks ago, the winds have clogged them back up.
I can see open water on Superior from the heights of Duluth, but I am told that 60% of the lake is still frozen with heavy ice ridges out there. It will be a while before things open up.
David Sorenson
Duluth, MN
As per request and feedback from members on the list, here is the latest on ice, particularly on Lake Superior. News reports over the weekend are that there are 60 (sixty) ships lined up waiting around Ste. St. Marie, MI, to try and cross Lake Superior. The Coast Guard is shepherding little convoys of 5 or so ships with ice breakers. So far, there is virtually no traffic on this end of the lake. To make matters worse, there is a 50 mph gale howling out of the NE today. That takes the ice and stacks it in windrows up to 10 feet thick which will stop a ship of any size. The Duluth harbor is usually bustling by this time of April, but today, it is a ghost town. Though breakers had opened lanes several weeks ago, the winds have clogged them back up.
I can see open water on Superior from the heights of Duluth, but I am told that 60% of the lake is still frozen with heavy ice ridges out there. It will be a while before things open up.
David Sorenson
Duluth, MN
