When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument orbiting aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead at midday on Sunday, February 24, 2008, skies were crystal clear in most parts of the region.
Snow-covered land and small frozen lakes can be seen as white patches away from the still-liquid deep blue Great Lakes.
Overnight low temperatures on Sunday morning had been below zero degrees Fahrenheit in Ontario and in the single digits in much of Wisconsin and Michigan.
But the waters of Lake Michigan continued to hold on to the heat energy absorbed by last summer’s warmth. Lake-surface temperatures ranged from very near freezing along the Chicago and northern Indiana shoreline to about 37 degrees midway between Wisconsin and Michigan.
A few patches of lake ice can be seen in the image to the right, bunching up along the colder shores around Chicago, northwestern Indiana and southwestern Michigan.
