The mild winter of 1997-98 produced one of the least extensive ice covers on the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America this century. Winter 1997-98 followed one of the strongest warm ENSO events of at least the past 50 years. Only the warm 1982 ENSO was stronger than the 1997 event during the past half century. Comparison of the seasonal progression of ice cover extent and concentration for these two extremely strong warm ENSO events is made. Lake averaged ice cover for the combined area of all five Great Lakes for the 1982-83 and 1997-98 winters is also compared with a 20-winter normal (1960-1979) calculated from the NOAA Great Lakes ice atlas.