Great Lakes Ice Coverage Tops 80 Percent For Second Year In a Row [Video]

Get your shanty on the water! 

Ice coverage on the Great Lakes hit 85 percent last week, marking the second year in a row it exceeded 80 percent, The Weather Channel reported.

The last time that happened was from 1977 through 1979 when it did it three years straight.

A record that could still broken this winter is last year's 92.5 percent ice cover (which was the second highest total).

That could still be easily broke because a severe Siberian cold blast will keep its grip on the region until the end of the month.

By the way, 2014's 92.5 percent mark wasn't achieved until March 5, The Weather Channel reported.

Is it possible we could get the most ice coverage ever? To do that, we would have to top the 94.7 percent mark, which was 1979's top total.

A graph at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory shows the last time ice coverage was over 80 percent in back-to-back years was in the 1970s. Specifically, it happened three years in a row from 1977 to 1979.

The long-term average peak ice coverage since 1973 has been about 51 percent.

Here's some video from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and how its crew is dealing with the heavy ice cover.