There Is Still Ice On Lake Michigan, In Early April

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- For those who subscribe to the theory that winter dies slowly in Chicago, further evidence was found Sunday along the Indiana shores of Lake Michigan.

Easter Sunday, a cloudless, 68-degree beauty of a day, called for a hike at the Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterton.

A warning at the ranger's station about shelf ice was initially dismissed, under the assumption that the sign simply had yet to be put away for the season.

Yet, there it was floating along the breakwater: the last vestiges of the floating ice formations.

Over the winter, the massive sheets of ice typically stretch far out onto the surface of the lake, in some places hundreds of feet.

Many areas are covered in balls of snow and ice formed by wind and waves that push down into the southern tip of the lake in Indiana. The ice is unstable, and visitors are warned to stay off.

Lake Michigan set a new record for ice coverage in March.

The National Weather Service said the cold start to March caused ice levels on the lake to increase quickly, pushing ice coverage to 93.29 percent on March 7. That broke the record of 93.1 percent set in 1977.