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It would appear that the straits are frozen over and it would be possible [if crazy] to cross by foot with some planning.
This brings up a legal question. Is it against the law to go out on the ice and, if so, at what point does one cross the international border? That question must occur in the ice fisheries of Lake St. Clair too.
http://detroityes.com/webisodes/2014...inter-pano.jpg
Click Here for a Large Version
I was riding the people mover yesterday and we debated this as we looked out at the river. I think it is very possible in current conditions to walk to Windsor across the river.
Really? I still see quite a bit of open water between those chunks of ice. $1 Million in cash would not entice me to step one foot on that river.
Not for $1Million? Really? I would. Of course I would hire a helicopter with a rescue basket to hover me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevgoblue
There are some open water spots on he Canadian side but there appears to be routes around those.
I guess that depends how much weight you're carrying.......Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowell
Attachment 22706
I was in Forestville yesterday, between Port Sanilac and Harbor Beach and took this picture. The lake was frozen out as far as you could see, maybe 20 miles to the horizon. I've never seen that before. It's about 40 miles to Canada at this point and I'd like to see someone try to walk acoss that distance!
Attachment 22707
I'd think a Coast Guard Cutter would be running through there fairly often for ships right? I know the Soo Locks are closed for the season, but there is still boat traffic on the lakes right now correct?
You are correct. This was taken during the first freeze. I've see CG ice breakers escorting ships while on the South side of Belle Isle twice this season. I'm not sure if @ some point ship traffic completely stops.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeg19
Attachment 22708
Even when the river [[or great lakes) freeze over, ice thickness varies immensely. I wouldn't ever deem it safe, especially in a relatively swift flowing river [[and the water is still flowing under the ice). I have no idea what the odds are for walking across without falling through; I am certain, though, that falling through would lead to super-rapid hypothermia. And if you fell through and were swept under the solid ice, you would be virtually unsaveable, helicopter or not. In short: if you want to walk across, make sure your affairs are in order first.
The Mackinaw has been down here breaking it up. A couple of weeks ago I noticed it was iced over and had snow on it. The next day it was gone.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeg19
I later heard there was a fuel spill in the river due to a problem refueling the Mackinaw. It was a few hundred gallons. http://coastguardnews.com/coast-guar...aw/2014/02/10/
Btw great pics by all on this thread.
I would not trust any ice with current running under it, especially Detroit River ice. There is still the occasional boat traffic running. The tug Everlast/Barge Norman McLeod passed down Saturday morning and back up again Sunday morning. Not sure if anything has moved since them, particularly since I'm on the river at night and the Coast Guard does not break ice at night.
Great Lakes ice cover spreading rapidly; see which lake set a new recordWow. Just wow.Quote:
[Lake Superior] is 92 percent frozen, toppling a 20-year-old record of 91 percent set on Feb. 5, 1994.
Jimaz it is wow-worthy, but it is not unprecedented. Just rare.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimaz
"toppling a 20-year-old record" is "not unprecedented"?! :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklynJimaz it is wow-worthy, but it is not unprecedented. Just rare.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimaz
Where can you possibly intend to go with that line of reasoning?
[[In)famously, back when the world was a colder place, there was a time when the Detroit River froze solid enough that some people would drive cars across it.
My grandfather used to regale us with tales of the years when he'd drive his stripped-down Ford out across the river ice to Windsor and back. And it was, of course, quite a bit heavier on the return trip. The money involved was well short of a million bucks, but it was certainly more than enough to get him out there several times a winter. His continued survival was, has said, evidence enough that the undertaking was not, in fact, as dangerous as it might seem.
Repeal [[something my grandfather lamented for years afterwards as deeply injurious to his earning power) seemed to have created a thaw from which our frozen waterway has never really recovered.
I think the Coast Guard has been requiring icebreaker escorts for boats transiting the Detroit/St Clair River system. The big trouble point this season seems to be the St Clair River adjacent Harsens Island. Two tankers have been stuck there this evening while a Canadian cutter works around them.
Great photos, all. I wouldn't try it for a million dollars. We saw a lot of open water near the Ambassador Bridge from our 20th floor room at the Book Cadillac, last weekend.
My parents crossed the ice of the St Clair River, more than once, to the family cottage in Port Lambton, Ontario, from Algonac, in the 1930s.
Still stuck there this morning.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeM
www.marinetraffic.com
I'd pass on that million. I went thru ice twice as a kid......unbelievable cold/shock to my system. One time...I thought I was a goner. That's something I've never forgotten.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowell
If I went in now at my age, I'd probably stroke or coronary instantly. ;)
There are no Straits of Detroit. The name Detroit means 'Straits'. Just sayin.
That line in the Mlive article is referring to the ice level for the last 20 years. The wikipedia article on Lake Superior demonstrates that it does freeze over about once in every 20 years. Interestingly, the obviously older Wikipedia entry also stresses alarm about the lake's warmer temperatures in recent years. No worries this year!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimaz
I was merely pointing out that while this year is unusually cold and iced over, it has happened before, and on a rare but regular basis, as far back as we have records. That is not to lessen what a spectacle it is. Also, things seem a little different because we have a plethora of photos, including stunning satellite images.
Yes, but no. "Detroit" is the French term for straits, but it is also a proper name, in this case of the city. It is appropriate and common to call a body of water by the name of adjoining land. Since the body of water is actually a strait, and not a river, it is correct to refer to what we generally call the Detroit River as the Straits of Detroit. I don't suspect it will catch on, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinman
http://wpmedia.blogs.windsorstar.com....jpg%3Fw%3D630
Grandpa... is that you?
Ship passages may have stopped, but the recency of ice-cutting before they stopped combined with the reasonably swift flow of the water beneath would dissaude me from marching across. I'd certainly walk out on a shallow portion and test it out though.
Remarkable how the larger lakes are almost frozen across. Its a positively rare event, and rarer still in the high-carbon era. http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/...&type=N&lake=l
Considering what de Troit means, I am not sure we can call this body of water the straits of Detroit. Unlike, say, Gibraltar or my namesake, the city was named after the physical description of the waterway.
Water [[or "river"): de Troit / Detroit. Translated: The Strait.
City: de Troit / Detroit. Tranlated: [the City on/of] The Strait
Strait: noun[COLOR=#878787 !important][/COLOR]
- 1.
a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two large areas of water
Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair would be the 2 requisite larger bodies of water. Since the strait in question flows past the city of Detroit, it would not be wrong to call it the Straits of Detroit. Nor would it be wrong to say the Straits of Windsor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn
As long as we get it strait.........
From the east end of Belle Isle on January 31st: a convoy of two icebreakers and four freighters winding their way downbound past Windmill Pt on the left, and Peche Island on the right.
Attachment 22732
Attachment 22733
There was open water within 20 yards of shore and I was surprised to hear the river current against the ice. Also, what seemed like a sheet of solid ice heaved and broke apart as soon as the ships' wake hit it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeM
Nice shooting MikeM.
Can I talk about a strait if I'm gay?Quote:
Originally Posted by Honky Tonk
And MikeM, that is a great shot.
Thank you. They looked crooked but that's because the ice on the distant right side blends in with the sky. The cutter and the two tankers spent the night stuck in the ice but finally passed through the Detroit River this afternoon, so don't go walking out on the ice for a day or two.
Lake Erie has frozen over - here's how it looked from space yesterday
Attachment 22745
That would be Ville de Troit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mackinaw
When I used to fly from NY to Detroit, a good chunk of the flight is over Lake Erie. I used to love the expanse of blue with tiny little dots [[ships) moving over it. It would be so weird to see a desert of white.Quote:
Originally Posted by Embee
Yeah yeah yeah I know and you know but it sounds better than the Detroit River because it ain't no river neither. It is either a straits or part of the St. Lawrence River. :) Now if it just had some rapids it could be a sault.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinman
I pretty sure it's not sault water.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowell
I think its best to stay off the ice.
http://www.thenewsherald.com/article...ewmode=default
The frozen Great Lakes are causing a political crisis in Canada. Heretofore untold numbers of inhabitants of "Canada's basement" are brazenly crossing into the Dominion. NDP party apparatchiks have been spotted meeting the invaders with snowmobiles bearing Hudson's Bay blankets, hot beaver tails and poutine. Conservative party observers denounce this as an effort to swell the ranks of "undocumented New Democrats" and vow to use secret Canadian technology to restore the lakes to a liquid state. NDP officials deny any part in the affair, but a reporter for the Toronto Star claimed that an NDP office had ordered a mass printing of "The Newcomers Guide to Hockey". Further reports as events unfold.
the ice down in front of Fort Wayne has stayed pretty dense lately, but it has cleared out a couple times as well. of course, today it is all open water, but it was frozen over just a few days ago.
part of it is the rapid current, and part if it is the fact that there are so many industrial outlets and drains of various sorts concentrated in this area, keeping the average water temperature higher than it normally would be. even though the great lakes may be frozen completely over, the Detroit River itself will probably only get a skin at most.
i'd say if its going to happen at all, this is the winter that it will have the best chance.