Winnipesaukee Forum - Ice-In 2012-13

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This Is Ice In??

Quote:

Originally Posted by ishoot308 (Post 198142)

Really??...

I see some ice in that pic ;)

I think they mean "there is ice, in some places".

Might be time to put up the ice-out thread. :( Here in Central MA my yard was completely covered in snow yesterday morning. This morning, there is none left. My neighbors have a small patch or two. It is over 50 here and at the lake according to the weather channel.

The lake cams show a lot of deterioration. My hopes for getting to Rattlesnake this winter are dwindling.

Declaring ice-in, dubious at best, did not show the reality of the several open areas on the lake shown by the you-tube video.

Please stay safe

IG

Any open areas are certainly going to break up some now. 15 minutes ago, it was relatively quiet here. Out of nowhere, the wind came up, and is now blowing as hard and consistent as I ever see it here, short of a hurricane.
Temperature 48.

Long Beach LSP..

Group of guys pulling sheds, one is already gone to under, these 2 are close to being gone Unless some one gets them real soon. In the second picture the waterside anchors are already slack.

Attachment 7408

Attachment 7409

There is more open water off LSP and Ellacoya than last weekend. I suspect Dan is correct and the spotters took slush for ice when they declared ice in.

definition of "ice-out" and "ice-in"

if the definition of "ice-out" is:

"the official Lake Winnipesaukee Ice-Out is determined when the Mt. Washington can successfully navigate to all it ports of call."

then what is the definition of "ice-in"

just curious ;)

You know when we were kids, that was not the definition of ice-out. I don't remember when that definintion cam about. Don't asked me how they declared ice out in the "old days", but it was not when the Mount could complete her trip.

Ice-Out definition

Quote:

Originally Posted by tis (Post 198156)

That is really interesting. Any other old timers with the definition? When did the current definition come into play? When did Emerson Sr. start declaring ice-out from his plane?

(we have to talk about something if we can't talk about how much fun we are having on the ice)

IG

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merrymeeting (Post 198136)

I don't see how this could ever really happen. Ice-out isn't declared until the lake is almost completely ice free (save for a few ice floes floating around or a few small coves still with some ice. By the time ice-out is declared, the water temperature has risen enough that it would take weeks of cold weather to completely re-freeze the whole lake. While some areas may skim over at night, but 10ish AM the next day, the skim is usually gone.

Me thinks Mike meant, if the ice partially melts and then refreezes. :laugh:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merrymeeting (Post 198151)

It was 56 when I left for Patrician Shores, when I got back the car said 44.
Looks like the temp is dropping fast.

Island Girl, same here, yesterday the ground was covered today the ground is bare and almost all of the snowbanks are gone. This is the same from The Laconia side all the way over to Center Harbor.

I hope the ice freezes enough for them to have the pond hockey thing.

Ice-out.. ice-in..ice-out

Actually something like that occured a short number of years ago. Ice-Out was declared a bit too early, and a huge floe slid back in to completely block Wolfeboro harbor for a couple of days.

By the time ice-out is near, the water temps are 39-41 degrees and too warm to refreeze more than a skim coat.

I have been on Rattlesnake to watch ice-out and it is so interesting to see the stream of water appear, then get wider and wider. Then the lake if on the move and the ice moves, often piling up on any shoreline it hits, hence the dock damage. Then overnight it can skim over, melt and begin to move again. Some years it just melts away without the shore crashing.

It is very pretty, and very exciting. Somewhere I have pictures I will try to find.

IG

Waking up this morning to bare grass with wind and rain. I took a walk around Christmas Island and drove around Paugus Bay. I can't believe how much open water there is. Paugus seemed locked in even before the arctic blast we got. I figured the rain and wind would do little more than melt the snow, but it really opened up the bay and sent some ice drifts into my dock area. The wind will be back out of the north soon so these ice slabs will recede.
The view is south toward Lakeport. You can see the ice drifting north into my docks. Working the circulators to fend off the ice assault ;)

Anone near Meredith Bay? I'm heading that way in a little bit to check out the conditions. Trying to decide if I should have a booth out there this weekend for the pond hockey. If I'm going to be standing around in 6" of slush, I'm out!

I was hoping to get back out to my place after last weekend's epic trek out there by foot, with the ice has hard and thick as it was I didn't figure a short warmup or even a little rain wouldn't do to much, but I'm not feelin it anymore. Looking like there is just to much uncertainy. It is supposed to drop back to more seasonal temps get below freezing again, even a little bit of snow could fly but if the water on the ice doesn't get a chance to freeze a little snow on top is going to make a slushy mess and further insulate what ice is there from firming back up again. If we're going to have a bad ice year then what ice is out there better disappear fast in a couple of months!

Checked out Meredith Bay. It's looking good! I was worried it would be slushy, but the snow is long gone, just pig puddles of water that will freeze up when it cools down tonight. I think it's gonna be a great weekend for some pond hockey!

What about the "boards"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by magicrobotmonkey (Post 198189)

While I don't think ice is going to be an issue, each rink had small snowbanks around it to define the rink and stop errant pucks. I wonder what they're going to do now? A misguided pass on one rink could travel through ten other rinks on its way to the Weirs...

Water Temperature

Winnipesaukee Dataphone at the Lakeport Dam, 603-527-0071, reported the water temperature this morning to be at 37°.

Looking back at previous years, I think that this could be a record high for this date.

Welch Island cam

The welch island cam is working again on the rattlesnake webcams page. Anyone know what direction that is facing? Lockes island? Round island?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hilltopper (Post 198200)

Those were almost all melted away when I drove by this morning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYCtoLSP (Post 198209)

The welch island cam is working again on the rattlesnake webcams page. Anyone know what direction that is facing? Lockes island? Round island?

The direction appears to be variable. Often toward Belknap point and Locke's but other times toward the other side of the cove it would appear. Here you can see the location of the camera in the cove:
http://classic.wunderground.com/weat...p?ID=KNHGILFO9

Here you can play the video.
http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/...er/1/show.html

Island Girl, I found this in Wikipedia. It surprised me it was so easy to find this information-I thought it would be a lot harder. Apparently Emerson Aviaton starting calling ice out in the 1980s.

Ice-Out records have been kept since 1887 as a way to keep track of when both commercial and passenger transportation lanes became usable in the lake. In 1974, Dr. William K. Widgert compiled data from known records to create a list of past dates.[3]

Originally the Ice-Out designation was decided by people on shore. Later, for roughly 50 years, the call was made by Bob Aldrich, then, starting in the early 1980s, it was called by Alan Emerson. Since his death in 2002 it has been exclusively called by his son Dave.[2]

Ice-Out has occurred earlier on average in the last two decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century than in preceding decades. Culminating with a record early date of March 23 for 2012, as well as maple syrup season moving earlier over the same time span have led some to the conclusion global warming is involved.[2]

[edit]

I also found this interesting. Mildred Beach talks about ice out. (Page 3)

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1nd...m?referrerUrl=

Bobhouse heading towards Alton Bay

A bunch of bob houses had to be rescued off of LSP today. this one didn't make it...

Looks like we will need our skates to venture over to our place.

Has anyone made the trek from Harillas landing to the hole in the wall?

Laconia Daily Sun 2/1

Quote:

January thaw = bob house rescue time
GILFORD — Ice fishermen scrambled in mid fifty degree temperature early Thursday morning to rescue their bob houses from an ever-widening stretch of open water off from Ellacoya State Park.
''It's unbelievable. There's a seam in the ice right next to my bob house and yesterday I measured nine inches off ice there,'' said Jim Burgess of Gilmanton.
He was looking through zoom binoculars while sitting in the front seat of Al Bagley's pickup parked near the beach at Ellacoya, where a half dozen bob houses had been dragged close to shore, some with the aid a of a four-wheeler, and pondered whether or not to venture out to the edge of the ice some 300 yards away to try and bring in his bob house
Burgess' bob house was perched precariously on the very lip of the ice, right next to a 100-yard wide stretch of open water which extended from Dinsmoor Point to the south all the way north to Welch Island. A wind from the west was whipping up waves in the open water and was showing signs of gaining enough velocity to make any attempt to untether the bob house from its rope anchor and bring it ashore virtually impossible.
Burgess, whose bob house is well-known to other ice fishermen in the area for its excellent interior woodwork, had left all of his ice fishing equipment and ice augur in the bob-house overnight.
He put ice creepers on his boots, donned a life jacket and grabbed a coil of rope saying that he was at least going to try and get close enough to his bob house to better assess the situation.
He was joined in his journey out to the edge of the ice by Steve Powell and Jason DeCoff, both of whom live next door in Lakeshore Park and had been out earlier hauling their own bob house and several belonging to friends off the ice.
Burgess said that when they got to the bob house they could see water on top of the ice around and that Powell got right to the edge of the ice and was able to cut the anchor rope, allowing the trio to start pulling the bob house towards shore.
But there were some more obstacles on the way, including a strong gust of wind which nearly took the bob house over the edge of the ice, and the difficulty of the trio keeping balance on the wet surface of the ice.
''It took us awhile to get our technique down. I slipped and fell once because I was trying to get some traction and got my boots at an angle. Once you do that there's no way you can stay up,'' said Burgess.
As the trio got closer to the beach they were joined on the ice by two other men, who had earlier pulled a bob house belonging to Brad Cronin of Meredith ashore,and soon they were able to get the bob house safely ashore.
''I guess I used up my quota of bravery for the day,'' said Burgess, who then turned to Powell and DeCoff and said ''I owe you both one at Patrick's.''
He said that he will be putting his bob house back on the ice as soon as it the area freezes over again, which he expects will be within a few days.
At least one bobhouse is thought to have sunk when the water opened up during Wednesday night's heavy rain, an orange one which had been seen at dusk on Wednesday but wasn't visible Thursday morning.
The water opened up less than two days after ice-in had been declared on Lake Winnipesaukee by Dave Emerson of Emerson Aviation, who flew over the lake Tuesday morning and reported that the last open section of water near Welch Island had frozen over.
Emerson said he would be back checking on ice conditions after Thursday's high winds abate but expected with night time lows dropping to single digits it wouldn't be long before lake was covered once again.
The 4th annual New England Pond Hockey Classic will open this morning on Meredith Bay, where the ice is still 10 inches thick and the 21 rinks which had been created for the 1,400 players who have arrived for the tournament withstood the warm weather and rain.
Among those taking part is a team of eight players from Raleigh, North Carolina, who flew into Boston Thursday morning and showed up at mid-afternoon to check out the ice conditions.
''We just talked with Scott Crowder, who runs the tournament, and he told us things are shaping up fine,'' said John Rodgers of the Fun Unlimited team, which is competing in the over 35 Just for Fun group.
The players said none had has had any recent ice time and that they all skate in indoors roller hockey. One said that the last time he had been on skates at all was when he was 10 years old and joked that entering the tournament ''sounded like a good idea at the time.''

A friend of mine sent this picture from yesterday, access getting on the ice at Cattle Landing may be tough.

Todays picture from Mark- looking across to Camp Lawrence

Anyone know if there is a place to get on the ice between Shep's and Cattle Landing?

Thanks for posting that pic BIS, I am headed up tomorrow and I hope I can safely get on the ice somewhere in that general location. May be a futile trip but going to give it a shot anyways.

I know some folks last weekend were getting on over at Y Landing, but I don't think that area freezes to well and I'm not about to take any chances.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bear Island South (Post 198262)

A friend of mine sent this picture from yesterday, access getting on the ice at Cattle Landing may be tough.

I assume this is the shoreline just to the south of Cattle?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamiltony (Post 198266)

I assume this is the shoreline just to the south of Cattle?

yes, adjacent to the dock.
apparently the circulator is eating the ice away

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bear Island South (Post 198272)

yes, adjacent to the dock.
apparently the circulator is eating the ice away

Did they take any images on the north side of Cattle? Someone in this thread already mentioned that the ice was more stable in that direction, hopefully cutting through the small stand of trees on that side will lead to some solid footing.

You know the new $125,000 Cattle Landing town dock, about one to two years old, is a floating concrete dock, and supposedly according to its manufactorer's website, using an ice-eater/water circulator is not really needed to protect it from the relatively thin ice present at that location, so maybe you could bring this to the attention of the Meredith D.P.W., and they would not need to be using the ice-eater there.

www.tmpmarine.com/pages/docks/docks.html

Rattlesnake power out

The power appears to be out on Rattlesnake Island. This means no Snake Eyes for a while. I hate when that happens.

IG

Quote:

Originally Posted by Island Girl (Post 198287)

The power appears to be out on Rattlesnake Island. This means no Snake Eyes fora while. I hate when that happens.

IG

FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's out on Welch as well.

Bear Island appears to have power.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brk-lnt (Post 198288)

FWIW, I'm pretty sure it's out on Welch as well.

Bear Island appears to have power.

The Welch Island Cove weather station is still operational:
http://classic.wunderground.com/weat...p?ID=KNHGILFO9

Took my first real walk out on Merrymeeting today, and talked to a few of the ice fishermen who were out (first time seeing them too).

Most areas seem to be 10+". Once the sun came up, and with no snow cover to absorb it, the ice began sounding like crazy.

Looking at the various cams I can't tell if I see water or water on ice. Looks like a lot of open water to me. Massachusetts ground hog, Miss G, says 6 more weeks of winter. I hope she's right. Thanks for all the pictures of bob houses. Can't see them on web cams. Hope fishermen/women are having a great time out there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slickcraft (Post 198290)

The Welch Island Cove weather station is still operational:
http://classic.wunderground.com/weat...p?ID=KNHGILFO9

Thanks. I was basing that on the fact that I haven't gotten any updates from ishoot308's web cams today, so I figured power must have gone out on the island. Maybe it's just a DSL issue, or something else.

Still open on the Broads in front of LSP, in fact it looks like it's more open than yesterday.

Took this pano this morning just before sunrise looking down towards Diamond and Rattlesnake. Lot's of open water and what ice I could see looked like Slush Ice.

Attachment 7432