Will Lake Ontario freeze over this weekend?
Persistently cold temperatures may help to build a crust of ice over the lake this weekend
Lake Ontario is notoriously one of the hardest lakes to freeze during the course of an average winter. Will we finally see ice coverage increase with this latest burst of frigid weather across the region?
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Ice coverage on the Great Lakes varies greatly between the five bodies of water. Lake Ontario usually lags behind its companions. This season, the lake saw a peak of 37 per cent ice coverage on Feb. 2.
Toronto is in the midst of its longest sub-zero streak since 2015, which has kept Toronto Harbour encased in ice through early February.
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It’s not every winter that Toronto Harbour freezes up, so it’s no surprise that Lake Ontario is running well above its 30-year average for peak ice coverage. Crews with Toronto Fire carve out specific pathways across the Harbour to connect downtown Toronto to the Island.
As winds subside and anomalous cold continues over the coming days, watch for the basin’s peak ice coverage to be challenged over the next several days. The calmer conditions may allow the ice to consolidate before temperatures rise later next week.
The greatest ice coverage across Lake Ontario was 86.2 per cent back on Feb. 19, 1979, followed close behind by 82.4 per cent coverage on Feb. 18, 2015.
When was the worst peak coverage? The winter of 2011-2012 barely built any ice over Lake Ontario, with just 1.9 per cent peak coverage on Feb. 17, 2012.
Header image created using graphics and imagery from Copernicus/ESA and Canva.