If you didn't know any better, or decided to temporarily suspend known scientific truths, you'd think the Great Lakes were an ocean from the viewpoint of their tourist-worthy beaches -- which makes its freezing all the more fascinating.

During the polar vortex, as much as 88 percent of the five Great Lakes were frozen -- including 96 percent of Lake Superior -- leading scientists to wonder if 2014 would be the first year in 18 which saw a complete solidification of the "S" in HOMES, according to Fox News. Since the recent warm swing and its rain, however, just 62 percent of all five lakes are now covered. Thus, Superior and those suffering from OCD will likely miss out on 100 percent ice this year. (All statistics were compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory).

Still, 88 percent total coverage represents the highest proportion since 1994, Circle of Blue reported. Yearly coverage had been averaging around 51 percent until the last two decades, when climate change has been linked to lower numbers. Besides record low temperatures, this year's positive statistics were aided by early freezings.

"One thing different [this year] is there was an earlier start to the ice season because of the temperatures in early fall and winter," George Leshkevich, a physical scientist at NOAA GLERL's Coastwatch program, told Circle of Blue. "We started having ice growing on the lakes-at least in reports from bays and harbor areas-as early as the end of November as opposed to normally in mid-December. With that first arctic vortex with the extended cold temperatures, that ice kept growing."

In addition to serving as an indicator for global temperature changes, ice is good for the Great Lakes and their surrounding environments. It helps to stabilize water levels by limiting evaporation, slows down "lake effect snow rates," and, if it persists into the spring, can cool temperatures in the summer, according to Circle of Blue. It also protects fish during the winter months.

"There are certain species like whitefish, especially in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, that require stable ice cover over their spawning beds, or else the spawning bed is susceptible to winter storms," Leshkevich said. "Protecting the spawning beds can help fish recruitment for the next season."

The region will need even icier seasons than 2013-2014 to reverse a trend begun in the late 1990s.

"From the 40 years of records that we have, if you plot the maximum ice cover for each year, it goes up and down, is variable," Leshkevich said. "But if you draw a trend line through it, it is downward. This year is going to change that trend line a little bit, but it will still probably be trending downwards. I think the thing is from the late 1990s, about 1998 which was an El Niño year, it seems to become more variable."