Snow-covered Midwest USA and frozen Great Lakes

Strong winds and record cold temperatures below -20°C caused loss of life, disruption to flights and closure of schools.

The composite image, from two Metop passes on 6 January at 14:25 and 16:04 UTC, shows the snow-covered Midwest of the USA and the cold front as it approached the east coast of the USA.

The zoomed image shows the snow-covered area around Lake Michigan where you can see cloud streets over Lake Michigan (lake snow effect) and sea ice forming on the western part of the lake, between Milwaukee and the southern tip of the lake (indicated by the faint darker cyan colour).

By the end of January 2014, the Great Lakes were under the largest cover of ice in 20 years. The early winter polar vortex that brought in freezing temperatures throughout eastern North America, put an ice cover over about 52 per cent of the Great Lakes. The Metop AVHRR image from 28 January shows most of Lake Erie covered by ice.

Download full resolution image, 28 Jan 15:20 UTC
Download full resolution image, 10 Feb 15:50 UTC

The NASA Earth Observatory reported that by mid-February ice cover on North America’s Great Lakes reached 88 percent — levels not observed since 1994. The average maximum ice extent since 1973 is just over 50 percent. It has surpassed 80 percent just five times in four decades.

Download full resolution MODIS image, 19 Feb 18:30 UTC

Additional content

N America weather: Arctic blast brings record temperatures (BBC News)
Huffington Post story about frozen Lake Erie