TRAVERSE CITY — A stretch of arctic temperatures has left the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay officially frozen over.
The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay Waterkeeper Heather Smith said that from the vantage points the organization visits, west bay looks to be frozen over from its southern shoreline out to Power Island, a distance of nearly 7 miles.
“This is a judgment call, but it looks to be consistent,” Smith said of the ice on Tuesday.
The last time west bay froze over was in 2019. The Watershed Center has ice records dating back to the late 1800s, and Smith said those west bay records reflect a Great Lakes-wide trend when it comes to ice cover: Up until 1980, the bay froze over at some point in the winter about 80% of the time. But, since the 1980s, it has happened about 40% of the time.
This freeze-over arrives during a roughly three-week long cold snap for the region — the last time Traverse City registered a temperature above freezing was Jan. 14, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Smith added the freeze-over designation is “certainly not an invitation to start recreating” on the ice.
“There really is no safe ice … There can be areas of very thin ice,” Smith said. “We really want to encourage people to exercise extreme caution.”
For those who aren’t thrilled by a frozen bay and are looking for signs of milder times ahead, National Weather Service Gaylord office reports indicate long-range models are trending warmer next week for the region. Before then, “overall quiet weather” is forecasted for the rest of this week, but a cold system is expected to drop wind chills to near zero early Saturday. Partly sunny skies are being forecasted for later in the weekend and into early next week for Traverse City.