Great Lakes ice: U-M experts available to discuss

EXPERTS ADVISORY With weather forecasts calling for a significant warmup in the region, the Great Lakes could potentially face an unusually early peak to an abysmally low winter ice season. University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the topic. Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome is an associate research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, a collaboration with NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. She is also an adjunct associate research scientist in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at College of Engineering. Her areas of expertise include sea/lake ice and lake-effect snow, polar physical oceanography and numerical geophysical modeling. "I think it is a little premature to say that the peak has already happened this year, given that Great Lakes ice cover typically peaks some time from late February to early March,- she said. "If we have another cold spell hitting the area, that would add a bump to ice formation.