Environment Canada says cold temperatures created ice cover on the the Great Lakes at a pace exceeding the normal rate.
A media release says the lakes were 5.5% ice covered at the beginning of the year, which is above the normal coverage of 4.3%.
Ice coverage grew to 23.7% by mid-month, surpassing the long-term median by 6%.
And the trend continued through the end of the month as ice grew in all of the lakes, but nearly covered all of Lake Erie. The last time Lake Erie was nearly completely covered at the end of January was 2015.
The cold temperatures allowed the freeze-up of the Great Lakes to progress to nearly 2 weeks ahead of schedule by the end of January.