CHANGE: Ice Expert Predicts Lake Superior Will Completely Freeze Over This Winter. “Austin attributes the large amount of ice on the lake to the ‘extraordinary cold winter we’ve had,’ pointing out that Duluth recently experienced an all-time record of 23 straight days of below-zero temperatures. The previous record of 22 days was set in 1936 and tied in 1963, according to the National Weather Service. . . . As of February 10th, ice covered 80.4 percent of all the Great Lakes, compared to 38.4 percent last winter, according to NOAA. That’s considerably higher than the lake’s long-term average of 51.4 percent under ice.”