As Of Mid-Novemberr, Still No Significant Ice On Superior; Lake Has Warmed 2C In Past 20 Years
Representative Rick Nolan and nearly 100 residents filled a UMD lecture hall for a climate change forum on Saturday. Lake Superior hasn't seen significant ice yet this year, and local scientists said it will see less ice in the future.
“We have our cold winters. We have our warm winters, but progressively, steadily we're going to see more of the warm and less of the cold. We're going to see overall a decrease in the ice cover on Lake Superior,” Professor Tom Johnson said.
Johnson is a regent professor at UMD and works in the Large Lakes Observatory. He said the average temperature of our big lake has warmed by 2 degrees Celsius over the last few decades. “That surprised us when we found that out because the lake is actually warming at twice the rate that the air is warming,” Johnson said.
But Geological Sciences Professor Christina Gallup said scientists are also seeing average air temperatures warm up too. She said that effects cooler climates like the Northland to a greater degree. “Here in Minnesota, in the last century, we've already had over 4 degrees Fahrenheit warming,” Gallup said.
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