Lake Erie ice floes
GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images, with surface wind barbs plotted in cyan and wind gusts plotted in red [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed widespread ice coverage in Lake Erie on 06 February 2022. Increasing southerly/southwesterly winds were helping to open numerous ice leads, resulting in the north/northeastward drift of large ice floes across much of the eastern 3/4 of the lake. A few large ice leads even opened up in the thicker ice that occupied the far western 1/4 of the lake — which stranded 18 people from getting back to the shore near Catawba Island, Ohio, requiring their rescue by Coast Guard helicopter and air boat (media report).
A sequence of 3 VIIRS True Color RGB images from Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 viewed using RealEarth (below) offered a closer look at the ice leads opening up in the vicinity of Catawba Island around the time that the rescue event became necessary.
VIIRS True Color RGB images from Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 [click to enlarge]