The sun helps us beat the February Blahs and even though it has been a tad cool during the Dog Days of Winter it's nice to get out in the fresh air. We have checked out Ontario Place and Burlington Beach during the last two weekends, walking carefully on the frozen ice as we try to keep upright.
Lake ice is limited to the inner harbour
Ontario Place is a great park for exploring and we end up along the breakwater protecting the marina on the south edge of the island. Three lake freighters were sunk to provide the wall (I only thought it was one) - Victorius, Howard L. Shaw and Houghton. The one at the very end is the Houghton with the bridge and lookout still in place.
In Burlington the long beach is covered in lake ice, piled in place and only stretching out about 40m from shore. The long piers leading into Burlington Bay/Hamilton Harbour are coated in ice so be careful walking out to the light house structures.
There is not a lot of ice cover on Lake Ontario now. In fact the ice cover over all the Great Lakes is down for this season. Overall Lake Ontario is forecast for only 12% cover, compared to its long term average of almost 30% from information by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL). Ice cover did increase with the recent blast of frigid air as a result of the polar vortex.
"The most recent ice cover forecast, updated on Feb 14th, 2021, predicted a maximum Great Lakes ice cover of 38%. The long-term average annual maximum ice cover (AMIC) is 53.3%. The predicted maximum seasonal ice cover for each lake is as follows:
Lake Superior = 46% (long-term average AMIC is 61.5%)
Lake Michigan = 27% (long-term average AMIC is 40%)
Lake Huron = 49% (long-term average AMIC is 64.6%)
Lake Erie = 67% (long-term average AMIC is 81.2%)
Lake Ontario = 12% (long-term average AMIC is 29.8%)"
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