U-M researchers see possible pause in Great Lakes ice decline, not a reversal

New research from the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), hosted by the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, finds that decades of declining average ice cover on the Great Lakes could slow or even temporarily turn around in the coming years.

The research team cautioned that large year-to-year swings in ice cover are making it harder to forecast conditions for future winters, complicating planning for residents, businesses and the shipping industry that rely on the lakes.

Researchers wrote in the study that any near-term shift should not be read as climate recovery, but rather "a temporary respite from the background warming that has continued over the last 125 years." The study, titled "Century-long data reveals complex trends in ice cover in the Laurentian Great Lakes," was conducted by Assistant Research Scientist David Cannon and Associate Research Scientist Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome.

Read the full story at seas.umich.edu.