The National Weather Service has records of ice cover on the Great Lakes dating back to 1973, and it says since then, ice cover has never been so low in the second half of February.
That's prompting the Coast Guard to dock its ice breakers on Lakes Erie and Huron, and on the Detroit and St. Clair rivers until further notice.
Lorne Thomas is the Coast Guard's head of external affairs in the Great Lakes. He said it's unlikely we'll see significant ice formation this late in the season.
"There's a certain point in late February where almost no matter how cold it gets after that, there isn't a lot of significant ice being made. So we're almost at that point, historically," Thomas said.
Thomas added that normal ice breaking operations continue in the Straits of Mackinac, and on Lake Superior and the St. Mary's River.
