Yesterday morning the temperature in Porcupine City (or Ontonagon, as it is known to reality freaks) was 25 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, reports Steve Sundberg, a regular correspondent from the place. "It doesn't normally get nearly this cold around here, but the western end of Lake Superior has frozen over. That has shut down the lake effect snow machine and ended the normal temperature-moderating influence of the open water."
Steve sent a link to that NOAA satellite photograph, taken Friday. Click it for a slightly larger version.
From its caption: "Areas that are tinted aqua on the lakes indicate ice cover, pure black areas indicate open water, and white areas indicate cloud cover. In this image, note how the ice cover on western Lake Superior has almost prevented the development of any lake effect clouds and snow showers. One lake effect snow band, originating from a small patch of open water between Isle Royale and Thunder Bay, Ontario, can be seen streaming south toward Ironwood. The shrinking open water area over eastern Lake Superior is still sufficiently large to allow numerous bands of lake effect snow showers to develop and to stream into north central Upper Michigan."
The NOAA page with the photo is here.
Um . . . I think maybe I'll wait until there's a heat wave, about 20 degrees above zero F, before I spend any of the winter up there in Steve Martinez country.
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