Looking at a NOAA ice coverage map from January of 1977 it looks a lot like the current ice coverage map today, according to WZZM 13 Chief Meteorologist George Lessens, “1977 was one of the coldest winters on record.”
According to Environment Canada, the Great Lakes haven’t had this much ice so early in the season since the late 1980s.
Great Lakes ice can be a bad thing, especially for shipping: a week before Christmas, a freighter carrying 17,000 tons of coal got stuck on thick ice on Muskegon Lake. This meant Consumers Energy had to cancel its last two coal shipments of the winter.
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/277421/2/More-ice-on-Lake-Michigan-than-seen-in-decades