A large crack in the ice covering Lake Erie was captured on Sunday by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite, officials said.
In a post on Monday on X, NOAA estimates the fissure to be about 80 miles long, stretching from Port Burwell, Canada, to near Cleveland.
The agency captured the crack forming on satellite imagery on Sunday, a reminder that even when the lakes appear to be nearly entirely ice-covered, the moving water underneath and winds above can cause massive fissures.
Last week, the agency said Lake Erie is just about completely covered by ice. The lake was about 95.3% covered in ice, according to last Monday’s readings by the administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. On Sunday, the latest reading, 95.4% of the fourth-largest Great Lake was covered in ice.
On average, Lake Erie is about 54.4% covered by ice on Feb. 2, according to NOAA data dating back to 1973.
