Lake Superior Ice

Minnesota winters create Lake Superior ice and offer new vistas of one of our most popular Minnesota attractions.

We are often asked: "does Lake Superior ice over in winter." The answer is: "very rarely." The lake is so large that an ice sheet covering the entire lake happens only in the coldest of winters.

Below normal temperatures for much of the winter of 2008-2009 did cause the ice to cover nearly all of Lake Superior. Only small areas of open water remained.

A relatively rare blanket of ice rested on the surface of Lake Superior in early March 2009. On March 3, 2009 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the lake and its surroundings .

Scuba Diving Under the Lake Superior Ice

Share Your Favorite
Lake Superior Photos, Memories and Stories

Minnesota's Lake Superior region is one of our favorite vacation spots. It is also one of the most beautiful places to pose for great photos. Share your Lake Superior stories, memories and photos to help other visitors to Minnesota find those "not to be missed" vacation spots along the North Shore. Share photos of fall foliage, or photos of Lake Superior gripped in a winter storm. We want to see them all!