The ice cover may even eclipse the 1979 record of 95 percent with temperatures expected to dip in the coming days after “one polar vortex after another,” Jia Wang, a research ice climatologist for the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, told NBC News.  Lake Superior is now 91 percent covered by ice — the most since 1994 — and the great lake may even surpass a record dating back more than 30 years in coming days, experts say. This 90 percent ice cover is the highest so far this season, and the highest amount of ice cover since 1994. "By next fall, water temperatures will be cooler and the evaporation rates next fall will be less than they have in the past. "When we talk about the relationship between ice and water levels, it's important to take a step back and take a look at temperatures and water levels." Over the past two years, Lake Michigan's water level reached lows that haven't been seen since records began in 1918. "This time of the year, we don't have high evaporation rates whether or not there is ice because the water is so cold," says Gronewold, "what we do expect is that the extreme cold conditions now and the ice will make it a lot harder for the water to warm up in the ways it has in the past in the summer."
– This long, cold winter has created the most ice cover on the Great Lakes in 20 years—and with ice cover usually at its peak in mid-March, there's still time for records to be broken. Lake Superior is now more than 90% covered by ice, reports NBC, and with temperatures set to plummet yet again in the days to come, forecasters believe the 1979 record of 95% ice cover across all the Great Lakes could fall by the weekend. Lakes Michigan, Erie, and Huron are all virtually frozen over and ice is starting to cover Lake Ontario, the slowest to freeze, reports MLive, which notes that there have been reports of even parts of Niagara Falls starting to freeze. While many people in the region have had quite enough of winter, the continued cold is excellent news for the lakes because it will help replenish water levels, a hydrologist with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab says. "By next fall, water temperatures will be cooler and the evaporation rates next fall will be less than they have in the past. That's the key connection. Water levels should rise a bit," he explains to WSBT. The cold weather will also make life harder this spring for invasive species like the Asian stink bug. (Thanks to all the ice, it's possible to walk to Apostle Island Ice Caves on Lake Superior for the first time in five years.)