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February 26, 2026 - Rapid Melting of Lake Erie's Ice Cover
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By early February 2026, several weeks of frigid Arctic air sweeping the Great Lakes region transformed Lake Erie from an open water lake topped with a little ice into a vast expanse of white. According to the National Weather Service Cleveland, on February 3, Lake Erie was 94 percent frozen over—an ice cover that far exceeds the average winter ice peak of 65-70 percent coverage.
Weather forecasters from local televisions stations in Buffalo, New York, also confirmed that the highest peak ice in Lake Erie this year neared 96 percent in early February. However, a strong winter warm-up that followed on the heels of the Arctic air mass brought rapid thawing to Lake Erie’s spectacular ice.
Satellite imagery from NASA’s Worldview App shows that Lake Erie was covered in solid-appearing ice on February 7, although some of the lake’s surface was hidden under a small bit of cloud. By February 8, images showed dramatic cracks in Erie’s ice cover—the longest was approximately 80 miles long and stretched from near Port Burwell, Ontario, Canada to Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
On February 15, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this true-color image of widespread cracking and melting of Lake Erie’s extensive coating of winter ice.
Much of the southeastern and eastern sections of the ice still appear bright white in this image, which indicates the ice remains fairly thick in those locations. Open water appears in the west, along the northeastern coast, and can also be seen peeking through a few large cracks across the lake. Greyish-toned ice, which predominates in the west and northwest, indicates ice that has become water logged and is rapidly melting.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 2/15/2026
Resolutions:
1km (76.1 KB), 500m (198.9 KB), 250m (242 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
By early February 2026, several weeks of frigid Arctic air sweeping the Great Lakes region transformed Lake Erie from an open water lake topped with a little ice into a vast expanse of white. According to the National Weather Service Cleveland, on February 3, Lake Erie was 94 percent frozen over—an ice cover that far exceeds the average winter ice peak of 65-70 percent coverage.
Weather forecasters from local televisions stations in Buffalo, New York, also confirmed that the highest peak ice in Lake Erie this year neared 96 percent in early February. However, a strong winter warm-up that followed on the heels of the Arctic air mass brought rapid thawing to Lake Erie’s spectacular ice.
Satellite imagery from NASA’s Worldview App shows that Lake Erie was covered in solid-appearing ice on February 7, although some of the lake’s surface was hidden under a small bit of cloud. By February 8, images showed dramatic cracks in Erie’s ice cover—the longest was approximately 80 miles long and stretched from near Port Burwell, Ontario, Canada to Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
On February 15, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this true-color image of widespread cracking and melting of Lake Erie’s extensive coating of winter ice.
Much of the southeastern and eastern sections of the ice still appear bright white in this image, which indicates the ice remains fairly thick in those locations. Open water appears in the west, along the northeastern coast, and can also be seen peeking through a few large cracks across the lake. Greyish-toned ice, which predominates in the west and northwest, indicates ice that has become water logged and is rapidly melting.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 2/15/2026
Resolutions:
1km (76.1 KB), 500m (198.9 KB), 250m (242 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
