Lake Erie remains locked in Ice: Ice crack visible from space

A massive crack has formed on the mostly ice covered Lake Erie, as the cold winter continues unabated.

The sky cleared over the Great Lakes on Sunday allowing the ice covering 95 percent of Lake Erie to be visible from weather satellites. In fact, the image above shows the crack even appearing on Weather & Radar's WeatherRadar.

The Great Lakes have been steadily freezing over since the start of 2026 as waves of arctic air has kept temperatures to be well below freezing, with many days where highs didn't climb out of the teens and 20s. In fact, just last night, sub-zero lows occurred around the eastern Great Lakes.

Since the start of 2026, many places across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and eastern Midwest are having top 10 coldest start to a year.

Looking ahead, the TemperatureRadar does show a bit of thaw across the Ohio Valley and southern Mid-Atlantic Tuesday and Wednesday. Temperatures will get above freezing in many spots with a high of 50 as far north as Pittsburgh. However, another run of arctic air arrives later this week to keep the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic frigid.