Isn't the bay still partially/modtly ice covered, still, in late April?
Two words: ice breaker. Port of Green Bay is typically active already in March
"The
Port of Green Bay has opened its waters for the official 2023 shipping season, with the first shipment of cargo having arrived on the morning of March 15."
I'm getting flashbacks to the Titanic.
Conspiracy report. A majority of the bankers and financiers that opposed the creation of the US federal reserve were returning from a conference and died with Titanic.
Many years ago, it was common for Lake Michigan to completely freeze.
"
Dear Tom,
How often does Lake Michigan completely freeze over in the winter?
Shirley Melvis, Waukegan
Dear Shirley,
In records dating from the middle 1800s, Lake Michigan has never completely frozen over, even in the harshest winters. It has been as much as 90 percent or more ice-covered (in 1903-04, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1998-99 and 2013-14), but the lake is an impressively huge reservoir of heat that is released only slowly into the atmosphere. In addition, constant wind and wave action further inhibits the formation of ice. In an average winter a little less than half the lake freezes over. The lake extends more than 300 miles north to south, and most of the open water is in the south part of the lake where the chill is less severe. Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great lakes, is the only one that freezes completely over with any regularity in severely cold winters."
https://wgntv.com/weather/weather-b...an-ever-completely-frozen-over-in-the-winter/