Great Lakes Ice Cover in 2014 and 2024
These two images captured by the Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 satellites show the difference between ice coverage on the Great Lakes in 2014 and 2024. In 2024, for the second consecutive year, ice cover was significantly below average, with totals across all the Great Lakes measuring 2.7 percent. This record low was attributed to unusually warm temperatures in December, paired with the generally short duration of Arctic air blasts.
Jason Cooper, Archivist, NCEI Data Stewardship Division
"NOAA has a long history of collecting environmental observations and is planning for the decades to come. NCEI increases the return on investment of these observing systems and missions, making the data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable by researchers, decision-makers and the public."