Lake Superior Ice Cover Averaged 2.6 Percent in Winter 2023-2024, Lowest Since 1973

Lake Superior Ice Cover Averaged 2.6 Percent in Winter 2023-2024, Lowest Since 1973 NOAA recorded Lake Superior's lowest seasonal ice cover since its records began in 1973: an average of just 2.6 percent in the winter of 2023 to 2024. Yet NOAA's own monitoring page reports no notable surface temperature trend over the last five years, and a warm surface is not a warm bottom. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake on Earth by surface area. This film asks one question: what is this lake keeping? We start with the official answer, a federal report that blamed sudden flooding of the cargo hold, and the three theories that still compete with it: hatch covers, a shoal, and giant waves. One member of the Safety Board voted against the official answer. Then come the Western Reserve, which broke in two in 1892, the copper pits on Isle Royale, a copper legend that does not hold up, Ojibwe teachings about Mishipeshu, and the warming lake. Status as of October 2026: dives and research at the Fitzgerald site need a provincial license in Ontario. The rules as reported set a 500-meter protected zone and fines up to one million Canadian dollars; I could not find the regulation text itself. The Bannockburn, lost in 1902, has still not been found. The Milwaukee Public Museum says the copper tonnage is still unknown. If you like watching a famous place quietly stop making sense the closer you look, subscribe. New places, same question: what about this no longer makes sense? CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 2:05 The Lake 4:12 The Official Story 6:59 Three Theories 9:20 Not Unanimous 12:43 What the Cold Keeps 15:38 The Wrecks 18:50 The Copper Pits 22:23 The Legend 24:18 The Anishinaabe Teaching 26:33 The Warming 30:15 What Is Settled SOURCES U.S. Coast Guard investigation of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1977) National Transportation Safety Board report on the Edmund Fitzgerald (1978), including Philip Hogue's dissent Lake Carriers' Association letter to the Safety Board (September 1977) Edmund Fitzgerald hearing testimony: the Arthur M. Anderson's captain and a weather service forecaster NOAA: Lake Superior ice cover records since 1973, surface temperature monitoring, Thunder Bay sanctuary wreck condition Jay Austin et al., Lake Superior summer warming study (2007) National Park Service: Isle Royale and the Minong Mine National Historic Landmark (2021) Pompeani et al., The Holocene (2014): McCargoe Cove sediment record Milwaukee Public Museum: Old Copper Culture; Susan Martin (Michigan Tech) review of ancient copper mining research Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society: Western Reserve (2024) and Edmund Fitzgerald memorial records Ontario heritage rules for the Fitzgerald site (2006 change) Claude Dablon's account of Michipicoten Island; Rodney Elie (Batchewana First Nation) on Agawa Rock; Thor Conway on Mishipeshu PHOTO AND MUSIC CREDITS Photos via Wikimedia Commons: CC BY 2.0: Helena Jacoba, James St. John CC BY-SA 2.0: chumlee10, jockrutherford from Owen Sound, ON, Pete Markham from Loretto, USA CC BY-SA 3.0: Chaitanya Polumetla, Chris857 CC BY-SA 4.0: Antony-22, Chris Light, Fondycardinals, Shone Brooks, Valerie A. King, Wickanninish Public domain and CC0 images: A. E. Crane, U.S. Department of Transportation, ALFRED C. LANE, Charles R. Van Hise, Daderot, Detroit Publishing Co., Eric Polk, Forest Service, USDA, G. B. Morey and others, Gary Todd, HAER, Wayne Chandler, Jeff Schmaltz (NASA MODIS team), JMLAX101, NASA, NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, National Park Service, National Park Service photo, NOAA Photo Library, Notorious4life, NPS, NPS Photo, NTSB, Tucher, Rob, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District, U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses, U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of the Army, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, US National Weather Service Office in Marquette, MI, WSRower, Yinan Chen, and others. Stock footage: Pexels (Pexels License). Music: YouTube Audio Library (no attribution required). Globe imagery: NASA Blue Marble (public domain). Narration is AI-generated. Scripts are researched with AI tools and checked against the sources above.