Cold snap hampers late-season shipping on Great Lakes

[riversedge]

Source: St Paul Pioneer Press




By Brady Slater | Forum News Service
January 2, 2018 at 11:06 pm


DULUTH, Minn. — Bursting with horsepower to spare in what has been a banner season, the Great Lakes shipping industry slowed against its will in the past week.

On Lake Superior offshore from Duluth, as many as nine freighters at a time have been anchored and at ease the past several days — mostly waiting turns to load iron ore pellets in the Twin Ports and Two Harbors.

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The gears of industry shuddered against the cold, causing dysfunction up and down the supply chain. There are any number of culprits behind the slow loading taking place right now in the Duluth-Superior harbor, Sharrow said, but all of it is traced to the bitter cold.
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Frozen train brakes impede departures at the mines; thousands of feet of elevated conveyors in Superior stiffen up in subzero temperatures; clumps of iron ore pellets bond with ice and cold and no longer move freely; and rows of hatches on lake freighters become welded shut by a foot of ice or more during bitter-cold voyages.

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Read more: https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/02/cold-snap-hampers-late-season-shipping-on-great-lakes/

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It is a beautiful site (the shipping industry would not agree I know). I love watching the barges move up and down the Mississippi as I camp in the summer. Winter has its own beauty.



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Four of eight ships at anchor outside the Duluth-Superior harbor make a picturesque scene with the Aerial Lift Bridge on Monday, Jan. 1, 2018. (Bob King / Forum News Service)

[underpants]

1. Funny I was just thinking about how this would effect seafood and Atlantic shipping

Those are some tough hard working people but you can't mess with mother nature.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Interesting given the cold snap, that the lakes still haven't frozen over yet

I.e., on average, they are only ~21% frozen - https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/#currentConditions

http://woodtv.com/blog/2018/01/02/great-lakes-ice-increasing-relatively-rapidly/

But then we are still "early" in the winter period and as long as there is a significant amount of open water, the lake effect snow potential will continue to be enormous. Once they mostly freeze, the lake effect machine shuts off.