Little Snow, Little Ice on the Great Lakes...

The Quad Cities isn't the only area experiencing warmer than normal temps and little snow. Areas around the Great Lakes are as well this winter. In fact, it has been so warm that many of the Great Lakes are ice free (The two images above show the lack of ice on the lakes right now).

Typically, the lakes will be completely frozen by the end of January (Below is an image of the Great Lakes frozen in 2009. the image was taken from space at the end of January in 2009).



The lack of ice on the Great Lakes could mean winter lasting into early Spring for the cities that surround the lakes. Since the Great Lakes are so warm, lake effect snow could occur into early spring. Lake effect snow is most common in November and December when the lakes aren't yet cold enough to freeze.

Lake effect snow forms when extremely cold air meets the warm air from the warmer water temperatures of the Great Lakes. The difference in temperature between the cold air and warm lake waters creates snow over land when they come together (shown below).