The interannual variability of the annual maximum ice cover (AMIC) of the Great Lakes is generally dominated by a dipole pattern over mid-latitude North America and Western Alaska via a ridge-trough system. We discovered a significant breakpoint in the winter of 1997/98 after which AMIC increased its interannual variability and negatively correlated with sea ice coverage over the Bering and Chukchi Seas in the preceding Novermber and Decemeber. The first covarying mode of the 500hPa geopotential height and surface air temperature indicated that the dipole pattern shifted northward to the northern Rocky Mountains after the breakpoint. Correlati The correlations with AMIC of the other well-known teleconnection patterns such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation on AMIC became insignificant after the brekpoint and were replaced by that from the Eastern Pacific Oscillaiton, which likely controlled the interannual variabilities of AMIC and sea ice cover the Bering and Chukchi Seas.