*The above video shows a heavy snow squall in Rocky River earlier this winter*

CLEVELAND (WJW) — Considering the Great Lakes are the largest body of fresh water in the world, the question this winter is: where’s the ice?

The amount of ice is nearly non-existent, and at its lowest rate since record-keeping started 50 years ago.

On New Year’s Day, only 0.35% of the Great Lakes were covered in ice, drastically lower than the historical average of 10% for this point in winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).

Air temperatures in Northeast Ohio will climb well into the 40s next week keeping the lake ice-free.

Lake Erie has no ice as of Jan. 7 and has seen a decline in ice coverage of about 5% each decade.

“This lack of ice has been a trend,” said FOX 8 meteorologist Alexis Walters.

“Also, when Lake Erie freezes over it turns off the lake effect snow, but this year, our lake effect snow hasn’t been as significant as we are typically used to because temps in December were the second warmest on record for Cleveland. Most of our precipitation thus far has been rain,” Walters said.

*Above photo: Fox 8 News February 2015: The Arthur M. Anderson had to be freed by US Coast Guard Cutters after the freighter got stuck in ice 10 feet deep on Lake Erie near Conneaut Harbor in 2015*

No ice puts a damper on Lake Erie coastal towns that rely on income from winter recreation activities such as ice fishing, but could the shipping season get extended because mariners’ freighters wouldn’t get stuck in deep ice like ships did in the winter of 2014-2015?

As we’ve seen in past winters, it can take just one major arctic outbreak for several days to form ice on Lake Erie, but FOX 8’s Scott Sabol said recently we could be on our way to our eighth straight mild winter.

NOAA attributes more mild winters to climate change.