Climate Change Update:Apostle Islands Already Feeling Climate Change: Report | Ashland Current

Apostle Islands Already Feeling Climate Change: Report | Ashland Current: "The four parks, in addition to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, included in the report are Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Isle Royale National Park.

Altogether, the parks are already seeing rising temperatures, decreased winter ice, eroding shorelines, spreading disease, and a crowding out of key wildlife and plant life. The report's details about changes already noted to be underway in the five parks include:

Temperatures that have gone up more in the last decade than the global average.
An increase in rain falling in heavy Midwest storms, well above the national average.
Great Lakes winds becoming stronger – Lake Superior winds have increased by 12% since 1985.
Great Lakes water is warming, with Lake Superior's summer water temperatures having risen about 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit from 1979 to 2006.
The Great Lakes are covered by less ice today – ice cover across the surface of the lakes has fallen by 15%.
Since 1975 the ice cover around the Apostle Islands has formed about 12 days later per decade and melted away three days earlier. By the end of the century, ice could last 76 days less around the Apostle Islands."