The Great Lakes are now much colder than both 2018 and 2017. Superior is almost entirely iced.
Does anyone have data on annual Great Lakes ice volume since XXXX? I can't find this parceled out specifically but I wonder if PIOMAS or whatever has this information, and I'd be very curious to see the annual graph comparison if it does exist.
In any case, continentally, snowfall is now +2SD vs EXTENT normal as mentioned by Tealight, while SWE is chugging towards 1,500KM^3. This year appears to have an edge over 2018 in terms of both SWE, and lake / near-shore sea ice off SE Canada. I think both factors should result in a later SWE maximum than 2018, possibly in the last week of April (last year was 4/15-4/20).
This should also have the side effect of a very late Hudson Bay melt-out (later than 2018), also resulting in a protracted melt season for Labrador / Baffin. Maybe that also portends a record early melt-out for Bering and Barentz? We shall see, but curious to see if the pattern development through 2018->2019 continually re-inforces as it has been doing, or reverses at some point, as it eventually will (or so we hope).
Finally: the long range ensemble modeling projects continued FRIGID conditions across the Midwest / Great Lakes. This should result in the freezing season for the Great Lakes extending into Mid-March, and beyond. I wish we had the actual data but I'd guess Superior will end up with the most volume of any year in the satellite record. Apparently April 2014 was the latest it has had substantial ice coverage since 1979, and I think that is a record we break with ease if the evolution of 2018's springtime pattern is any guide for 2019.
Days 6-10:
And 11-15:
This upcoming pattern could also put us in a position for SWE to make a running leap into early March. Usually SWE growth slows significantly and peaks in March, but this year, I don't think it is going to slow significantly within the next two weeks, and I do not think we will peak until late April.