Comparison of 1983 Great Lakes winter weather and ice conditions with previous years.

Abstract

Winter 1983 was one of the mildest winters in the past 200 years. One result of the unusual winter weather was the mildest overall ice season on the Great Lakes since systematic observations of ice cover extent on the Lakes were initiated some 20-odd years ago. The 1983 winter developed during the peak of one of the most intense El Nino-Southern Oscillation events of this century. Associated with the mild temperatures in the United States was an extremely strong Aleution low that persisted most of the winter. Economic impact of the below-normal ice cover included reduced U.S. Coast Guard ice breaking assistance to commercial vessels, reduced U.S. Coast Guard flood relief operations in connecting channels of the Great Lakes, and virtually no ice-related winter power losses at hydropower plants on the St. Marys, Niagara and St. Lawrence Rivers. -from Authors