A specialist with the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation says the ice cover on Lake Huron won't peak until sometime in February.
Coastal Stewardship Coordinator Hannah Cann says it's currently at 25% and is expected to reach about 30% at its maximum. That's significant because ice cover is the biggest factor in snowfall amounts for our region as cold air from the west picks up moisture as it crosses the lake.
Cann explains more ice cover generally means less snow, because more of the water is protected by the ice.
But she points out that for the past two years we've had very low ice cover and very mild winters. This winter, the ice cover is slightly higher than the past two years and we are getting more snow.
Ice cover also influences the temperature of a lake, so in a year where a lake has more ice cover, it will likely take longer for the lake to warm up in the summer. That could mean less evaporation and less spring precipitation.
Cann says the maximum ice cover Lake Huron has ever recorded was 98.5% in 1994, the lowest was 23% in 2012.