Near-Record Great Lakes Ice Cover Causes Water Levels to Rise, Agencies Say

摘要

Great Lakes ice cover reached the second-highest level on record during the winter of 2013-2014, meaning water levels of the lakes will be higher this spring and fall, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers said. The lakes were 92.2 percent covered with ice as of early March, just short of the 94.7 percent record in 1979, according to the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. The government has been tracking Great Lakes ice cover since about 1973, said George Leshkevich, a physical scientist at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based research lab.