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Points North

Points North: Winter ice will become a memory on many Michigan lakes

Max Johnston / IPR News

 

Grand Traverse Bay and inland lakes across Michigan, like Lake Leelanau and Torch Lake, will be ice-free by the end of the century if carbon emissions continue at current levels. 

 

  

That’s according to research at York University, which looked at historical ice cover and weather records from Grand Traverse Bay and lakes all over the world to predict when lake ice might be permanently lost.

 

This loss of ice cover is one of the earliest observed impacts of climate change.

 

And if you’ve kept records of lake ice and want to share the data with researchers, you can get in touch with ecologist Alex Filazzola at the University of Toronto.

Lexi Krupp reports on science and the environment. Previously, she worked for Gimlet Media where she helped the Science Vs team distinguish what's fact from what's not. Her work has appeared in Audubon, Popular Science, VICE, and elsewhere.