Lake Michigan's beautiful ice in 40 aerial photos

From the air, there's plenty of ice to see along Lake Michigan's shoreline. Away from shore, there still is large area of open, unfrozen water.

The temperatures have been cold enough to freeze Lake Michigan, but the wind has been working against record ice. In the past several days, strong westerly winds caused waves to break up some Lake Michigan ice. In fact, in one day ice cover on Lake Michigan decreased, from 65 percent Wednesday to 58 percent on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015.

Record ice ahead?
Based on what happened last year, I see no reason why we won't set record ice cover levels on the Great Lakes in the next 10 days.

Last year on this date Lake Michigan had less ice than currently, with 53 percent ice. In just two days last year the ice cover on Lake Michigan grew to 85 percent, and then gradually increased to 93 percent by March 9. The air temperatures during that period of ice growth where right in line with temperatures we are expecting in the next few days this year.

Related: Aerial view of Lake Huron shows near-historic ice cover with a ribbon of open water

During the last push of ice growth last year the winds averaged under 10 MPH. It looks like that is going to be the same case this year.

I would say we will have to see record ice levels by March 7 this year. After March 7 it looks like it will be above freezing enough that ice would have a hard time increasing.

As I write this, all of Michigan is between -10deg and -27deg with calm winds. Today should be a big day for making ice on the Great Lakes.

If you have questions or comments, please ask below.

MLive Chief Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa has been forecasting Michigan weather for more than 25 years. He's been chief meteorologist at three television news stations in Michigan, and he's an avid gardener and hunter. Email him at mtorregr@mlive.com and find him on Facebook at facebook.com/mark.torregrossa and Twitter @weathermanmark

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