Official 2013-14 Ice-In Thread
 

This is the Official 2013-14 Ice-in Thread. Please post your
comments about this year's Ice-in here.

It is hard to believe that ice-in has started so early in the season. Perhaps this is a sign for a nicely frozen Lake Winnipesaukee for winter sports. This thread typically gets started in late December. With the lake temps so low for the past few days, things are starting to freeze.

There is ice in Moultonborough Bay and in some of the coves. It is reported that Mirror Lake and Lake Wentworth have skimmed over.

It is typically 33-35 degrees at the Weirs when the broads skims over. The Lake temp as of this morning, reported by the Winnipesaukee Dataphone is 35 degrees. (11-30-2013)

The Ice-in page went live a few minutes ago at www.rattlesnakecam.com/icein.htm. If you have a webcam or know of one, please post the information in this thread and I will add it to the page. If you have a webcam that I have in the defunct section of the ice-in page please let me know if it is ever coming back.

For those of us who are addicted to watching the lake freeze, enjoy. If you are new to the lake, come back often and watch the progress of Ice-in!

Please visit this thread for the latest news and the Ice-in page for current images of the freezing progress. (Please click on the ads at webcam sites and support the sponsors. This provides revenue to keep the cams alive)

As always Please post your pics of the freezing lake here.

See you on the ice!
IG

This upcoming week is supposed to get mild, in the 40s, then back to very cold next week. The night time lows should stay at or below freezing so we may see a lot of freezing and melting before it has a decent base.

Both 19 and 20 mile bays were skimmed over this morning with a light dusting of snow as I drove into Wolfeboro this morning. Wolfeboro Bay was wide open.

The bays and coves on Merrymeeting Lake were skimmed over yesterday morning. I was surprised when I woke up and saw mist rising off the open water give how cold the water has been. Then I realized that it was 7 degrees out, so relatively speaking, the water was warm.

The Merrymeeting River before the marsh, and most of the Merrymeeting Marsh are now frozen, though I don't think it's very solid.

Today all the skim on the lake is gone. With temps predicted to stay at or above freezing for the next week, I think we'll see a slowing of ice-in.

This was Langley Cove at Christmas Island this morning. If I took this picture a few weeks ago the Christmas Island Motel would have been on that dirt!

I thought I could see some ice on the lake when going across the Gilford bypass the other day. I'm glad to see it coming in so early this year--with any luck we'll have a blockbuster winter. Though I love boating (and it's neat when you get be in the 80s and 90s in May in a mini-heatwave out on the boat) I need to log some miles on my sled this year.

Motel
 

Does seem strange to see just a bunch of dirt where the motel stood. I may have missed it in earlier postings about what, if anything is going up on the location. We had ice along the shore here in Beverly last week or so and with the cold snap coming, it won't be long 'til the lake is officially iced in.

Mother Nature giveth, and taketh away...

This afternoon was a beautiful, late-March-like afternoon, temps in the mid-40s with sunshine. Almost all of the ice that had formed on rocks along the shoreline has melted, and the road is a bit slushy as the top layer of dirt melts.

For the first time in a long time you can see Pixie Island from the road.
They are building 17 or so townhouses so it won't last long. Still unclear what's going to happen to the steak house.

Very surprised to see how much ice formed overnight last night. It's skimmed over about 100 yds out from shore in our cove. There was none at sunset, and the snow is sticking on it in places.

With no temps above freezing forecast for the next 10 days, if it stays calm, we could see early ice-in this year.

Any updates? Looks like moultonboro bay is caught.

We went out to Mark today, no ice in sight other than a bit of broken stuff in between mark and mink in the nwz. It looked like the mouth of smith cove has opened up a bit as well.

I was at Geneva Point area in Moultonborough today and Melvin Bay is not frozen yet. There's some thin ice in our cove but the Bay is open.

Lake Wentworth froze over on November 30 and, despite some challenges in the first week from rain and 40s is now frozen solid.

The ice on Merrymeeting reported above disappeared once the wind came up, and we are ice free for now.

I expect that if the wind dies, we could get a flash freeze quickly, as happened a few years ago. For about a week, we had beautiful, dark black ice that was smooth as glass. Great for ice boating and skating!

Maybe it'll happen after this weekends storm as all the snow landing in the water chills it more.

No doubt the water is cold enough to freeze. It just needs a couple of calm nights. Went to check my thermometer this morning but the ice formed. The coves around CI are frozen as well. I didn't turn on my ice aerator on until late January last year. Still cooking outside though!!! That grill will come in today with snow coming :(...George Forman until late March

So what are the bags over the posts for?

Too funny Steve O, after I added the photo I said "someone is going to look at those bags and say what the heck is that"
I have solar/battery powered lights that are mounted to the top of the dock posts. You can easily remove the snap top housing, containing the bulbs and wires, from the base of the light. The plastic bags are a lazy effort to keep any rain out of the bases. There's only a mirrored reflector in the base and I am only slightly worried about them filling with water and expanding when they freeze. The bags should help.

Lots of slush riding the waves on our waterfront today. That's usually an indicator that the water temps are right for freezing and the only thing preventing it is the wave action and wind. Should freeze quickly if things settle down.

Just drill some weep holes in the corners of the plates, it won't effect it structurally

This is the light. There is really nowhere to drill without cosmetic damage. The last dock lights I had allowed spiders and other bugs into the housing and by summers end it was filled with cocoons and dead bugs. These lights snap on at the top and when secure keep the inside of the lights free from bugs and other crap. The bags, which are heavier than ordinary plastic bags, aren't necassary but should help keep them clean.

Where did you get those lights??

Lowes in Gilford carries them. They worked great this past summer. The LED light has a blue tone to it.
They come with two rechargeable AA batteries which are recharged through the solar panel.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_254599-67197...hts&facetInfo=

Back to our regularly scheduled topic of Ice-in...

As suspected, large portions of Merrymeeting skimmed over last night. The open areas have plumes of steam rising this morning as more heat goes out of the water. If it stays this calm, I'd expect the whole lake to skim over by the end of the day.

However, the wind is supposed to come up later in the morning. It will be interesting to see how/if the ice survives.

While I can only see about 1/3rd of the lake from my house, and the other end usually freezes last, I believe we have ice-in on Merrymeeting.

It skimmed over the night before last. Wind yesterday broke up much of it. But for the first time, several large ice floes remained at the end of the day, and they rejoined during the night. I woke up at about 2:30 last night, and in the bright moonlight I could still see several areas of open water where the water was rippling. But by this morning, those were closed up and there is now ice as far as we can see from this end. Once it closes up and the wind can’t whip up the waves, it usually stays. Especially with the temps we have now!

Most of the surface is rough, and it will be covered with snow tonight. Sadly, I’m sure we’ll be hearing reports over the next few days of snowmobiles going in as the surface will look inviting to some dummies, but I’m sure won’t be safe in all areas.

I found the same ice formation around my docks at sunrise this morning. I noticed most of the shorelines and coves along WB Blvd. were iced up as I drove to DD's. The rest of Paugus Bay was still water but since then most of Paugus Bay has formed a skim of ice. I have never seen it form so fast in the day light. The water is dead calm and the lake is rapidly turning to ice.

PaugusBayFireFighter: You got me good with your signature that appears to be a bug inside my monitor screen. Yes....I was sitting here trying to squish the bug. Was I surprised when I scrolled up and the bug moved!

Bug
 

McDude, he got me yesterday. I actually hit my screen a couple times before I realized it wasn't real.

Me too. I tried to get the bug off the screen and then decided it was in the screen. Finally I realized it was just PBFF. :laugh:

As I said in another thread...
 

PBFF owes me for a new laptop screen... I'll be darned if that little bug was going to get the best of me. Back to Ice In.

Ice in is definitely happening, it probably won't last but we are ahead of the game from last year.
Here are some shots from the south end of Bear looking towards Mark Is.

It's definitely freezing over on the South-Western side of Rattlesnake.

http://www.rattlesnakeisland.net/image_snow.jpg

Ice Around Welch
 

Ice is starting to form around my dock on Welch. Considering this is in the middle of the lake, I think a few calm and cold nights and we could be fully iced over in a couple weeks!!

Think Ice!

Dan

Paugus Bay this morning, looking south at Little Island

To misquote Mark Twain, my reports of ice-in on Merrymeeting were greatly exaggerated.

It turns out that the larger portions of the lake that I couldn't see are still open. Even more interesting, the portions that were ice covered are opening up again. This despite the fact that temps haven't gone much above 20 for the past 72 hours or more. I'm guessing it's a combination of insulating snow allowing melting from below, coupled with winds that are now picking up again. Things are opening up when I would have expected the reverse.

Just a few small pieces floating in the protection of my breakwater at the se end of the broads.

Alton Bay
 

Alton Bay is somewhat iced in from the bridge out to around Echo Point. There are some unfrozen spots in between. The problem is the snow that fell on top of the ice that was not fully frozen will make like a blanket of insulation on top of the ice and not allow the ice to fully harden making for unsafe conditions. Supposed to get down below zero tonight but the winds are howling so not much progress will be made overnight.

it's starting at Pine Island...
 

well I guess it's time to pull the Alumacraft, it doesn't look like we'll make it out by boat this weekend unless the cooling trend changes dramatically...

from the webcam this morning, good ice forming from shore well out to the broader open areas... bearcam also looked like there's a good skim out on the lake... will be interesting to see what happens with the predicted snow today, too bad because the way it looks now it would be ideal for skating, ice-boating, etc!

my Christmas wish... please Santa make it freeze fast, solid, and thick! -PIG

Weirs ice-in time lapse
 

The time lapse link from the WeirsCam shows the ice setting up this morning. If we get the snow tonight, we'll know for sure what's frozen in.

Ice forming just off LSP
 

Just before sunrise today.. while taking some Moon Set pictures.. got this ice forming


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