Ice In

[winniboy]

Originally Posted by Bear Island South

This year is very similar to 2007. We were looking to buy a place on the lake and ended up taking a boat ride with our realtors on 1/18, by 2/14 we came over on snowmobiles to look again. I believe it will ice over but may be a short window of time.
2007 ice out was April 23rd.

am i right assuming that is Island Service Company's boat?

[Bear Island South]

Originally Posted by winniboy

am i right assuming that is Island Service Company's boat?

yes it is...Buddy brought us over from Cattle Landing.
We had to break through a few hundred feet of ice before we hit open water

[Alton Bay]

Are there any companies like Emerson that fly over the lake to declare "Ice-In"?
Wondering if the Broads were iced over today???

[winniboy]

Originally Posted by Bear Island South

yes it is...Buddy brought us over from Cattle Landing.
We had to break through a few hundred feet of ice before we hit open water

thats my dad lol
..



great pictures and a positive update.. glad to see the bay looking icy

[Bear Island South]

Ice showing on most of the webcams - can we declare ice-in

[JPerron2004]

anyone know if it is frozen over near ellacoya, i know thats usually one of the last places to freeze?

[FLAG!]

That skim of ice didn't hold up. Must have been windy yesterday. I hope the ice that's there now can hold up through next week's warm up and wind. Snow now would be bad.

[Slickcraft]

Photo taken today from Belknap Point Road looking out between Welch and Forty Islands. It looks about the same looking out from Ellacoya toward the Broads. A lot of blue water out there.

The area looking out from Glendale is skimmed over out past light 26.

[Ridgefarmer63]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

Photo taken today from Belknap Point Road looking out between Welch and Forty Islands. It looks about the same looking out from Ellacoya toward the Broads. A lot of blue water out there.

The area looking out from Glendale is skimmed over out past light 26.

That's a nice shot of the lake right there Slickcraft. Thanks !

[Bear Island South]

Originally Posted by winniboy

am i right assuming that is Island Service Company's boat?

Winniboy, I know Island Services does a lot of island work during the winter month's, have they started any yet? If so how are crossing the ice?

[winniboy]

Originally Posted by Bear Island South

Winniboy, I know Island Services does a lot of island work during the winter month's, have they started any yet? If so how are crossing the ice?

Still not on the island yet, they have a project on bear for the winter building a new house. Ice is to think for boats but to thin to cross (safely) with snowmobiles. they are waiting for the ice to solid up a little bit, if it doesn't they can break out the fan boat.

[Island Girl]

For a lot of the lake, the ice is still too thin for even the air boats. They weigh a lot and will break through, creating rivers of water. The wind can use these rivers to break up what ice there is and the lake will never freeze. Given the forecast for the next week, growing much ice is iffy at best.

In a couple of days we will start with our ice-out guesses. How about March 1st?? !!!

IG

[winniboy]

Originally Posted by Island Girl

For a lot of the lake, the ice is still too thin for even the air boats. They weigh a lot and will break through, creating rivers of water. The wind can use these rivers to break up what ice there is and the lake will never freeze. Given the forecast for the next week, growing much ice is iffy at best.

In a couple of days we will start with our ice-out guesses. How about March 1st?? !!!

IG

The air boats can go out on water if needed. We will not be going out if not needed. id say april 1st

[Island Girl]

Yup, drove one myself s few years back! As the ice gets thin, I love the undulating ice behind the air boat. It looks like waves of water but is really waves of thin punky ice. I think i have a movie of riding in the airboat somewhere on http://rattlesnakecam.com/pictures.htm. If not I will put one there in the next day or so.

CA

[codeman671]

Some airboats dont do as much damage to the ice. The yellow 1000 Islands that I had was great. I could easily traverse from water to ice without plowing through like the standard square hulls do. I rode in the ISS airboat last spring a week or so before ice-out, it is the traditional flat bottom square nose style. It had a tough time getting on top of the ice, granted there were 5 of us in the boat.

March 1 sounds great to me!

[TJNed]

I'm new here to the forum, but have been keeping a watchful eye trying to find out how the ice is developing on the lake. Me and my family come up each year (about 15 years now) for the derby and we would like to fish the channel by Governors Island. I know there is usually open water under the bridge but what does the rest of the nearby area look like? I'd like to get out to the point in between Governors Island and Weir's beach.

[Pineedles]

Originally Posted by Island Girl

For a lot of the lake, the ice is still too thin for even the air boats. They weigh a lot and will break through, creating rivers of water. The wind can use these rivers to break up what ice there is and the lake will never freeze. Given the forecast for the next week, growing much ice is iffy at best.

In a couple of days we will start with our ice-out guesses. How about March 1st?? !!!

IG

You know if that ever happens, we will be the World Poster child for global warming.

[upthesaukee]

Hope you enjoy the forum and the lakes region.

[Bear247]

Originally Posted by winniboy

Still not on the island yet, they have a project on bear for the winter building a new house. Ice is to think for boats but to thin to cross (safely) with snowmobiles. they are waiting for the ice to solid up a little bit, if it doesn't they can break out the fan boat.

Poor Erne is never going to get his camp finished

[winniboy]

Originally Posted by Bear247

Poor Erne is never going to get his camp finished

oh itl get done, they were still on boats untill last week or so, making good progress on it.

[rander7823]

Have there ever been two ice outs?

[Lakegeezer]

Originally Posted by rander7823

Have there ever been two ice outs?

Great question! Yes, there were - but not officially. I forget the year, but ice-out was declared, the Mt. Washington routes were open - the winner of the contest was declared. Then, some wind blew an ice-flow back into the boat's route and unofficially it was not ice-out any more. True story, but the official statistics of ice-out over the years do not reflect it.

[Island Girl]

I remember that, Lakegeezer. I think it was mid-week and the ice floes were gone by the weekend when I opened my camp... So no danger of my boat being hit by a wandering berg!

IG

[HomeWood]

How's the ice doing lately with the milder temps and the rain?

[Slickcraft]

We took a look by the town docks today, there is water between the docks but iced over elsewhere. No indication that anyone has been out onto the ice to fish nor has anyone attempted to get a bob house onto the ice from there. The town has plowed what snow there was so as to partially block access to the area left of the docks where bob houses are normally towed onto the ice.

[Merrymeeting]

I was out on Merrymeeting today. A layer of water, covered by slushy ice.

A friend who was fishing said the holes he drilled were ~6". It appears that the rain yesterday is still sitting on top of the ice. The ice below must be fairly good or the water would have drained by now. Then the sleet/ice of late yesterday covered over the top.

At the same time, there are a few areas of the lake that were iced over before that are now open (areas where streams or springs enter the lake). I also saw parts of the Merrymeeting River that had opened up that were frozen last week.

Finally, I drove over the Merrimack River today. Two weeks ago saw large ice floes in the water. Today, nothing, just water.

[Lucky1]

I was there Friday. Drove by Meredith and through Center Harbor and up to Moultonborough. Certainly was pleny of open water no matter where we looked.

[Resident 2B]

Well, I admit that my winter prediction made a month ago did not materialize. It got cold in the middle of the month as I expected, but the cold did not last long and from there it warmed up again, something I did not think would happen.

Looking forward, this coming week the temperatures will be above normal and the following week looks to be below normal. After that, it looks like the temperatures will moderate and be at or above normal into early March. This is not to say there will not be any cold days, but on average it does not look to be all that cold. This winter just does not seem to want to act like a New England winter.

As you all can see, the days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger. In fact the historically coldest time of the year is Jan 22 to Jan 26 and that is now behind us. All of this will result in only a minor building of the ice, most likely between next weekend and the derby. After that the higher sun angle and the longer days will start to kick in.

Again, I could be wrong and I have been more wrong this year than I have been right with these long range forecasts. Sorry about that. I also realize this is bad news to some and good news to others, but in the end it looks like this will go down as a very mild winter.

R2B

[ishoot308]

I hear ya R2B... With temps expected near 50 with rain on Wednesday and pushing 40 on Thursday, there won't be any real ice making going on only ice losing!

I decided to head to Pittsburg next weekend and try and get some snowmobiling in. Even up there trail conditions are iffy at best but I figured if I can't ride I can ice fish the Connecticut lakes! Plenty of ice up there!

Dan

[AC2717]

Is it my eyes, or does all the ice on the cams look to be solid, except snake eye of course. but including the Weirs cam???

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by AC2717

Is it my eyes, or does all the ice on the cams look to be solid, except snake eye of course. but including the Weirs cam???

After driving around a lot yesterday looking at property on the southern end of the lake, there is ice everywhere but I wouldnt head out just yet...

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by Resident 2B

Well, I admit that my winter prediction made a month ago did not materialize. It got cold in the middle of the month as I expected, but the cold did not last long and from there it warmed up again, something I did not think would happen.

Looking forward, this coming week the temperatures will be above normal and the following week looks to be below normal. After that, it looks like the temperatures will moderate and be at or above normal into early March. This is not to say there will not be any cold days, but on average it does not look to be all that cold. This winter just does not seem to want to act like a New England winter.

As you all can see, the days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger. In fact the historically coldest time of the year is Jan 22 to Jan 26 and that is now behind us. All of this will result in only a minor building of the ice, most likely between next weekend and the derby. After that the higher sun angle and the longer days will start to kick in.

Again, I could be wrong and I have been more wrong this year than I have been right with these long range forecasts. Sorry about that. I also realize this is bad news to some and good news to others, but in the end it looks like this will go down as a very mild winter.

R2B

I'm not going to let you go down with the ship alone. I was right there with you making the same predictions. This weather pattern and trying to predict it using the tools we always use is very frustrating, to say the least. I'm ready to write this "non-winter" off and move on to an early Spring.

BT

[SIKSUKR]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

I'm not going to let you go down with the ship alone. I was right there with you making the same predictions. BT

You can add me to that list as well.Can we get through one whole week with normal/below avg temps?This is a rollercoaster winter if I ever saw one.

[RailroadJoe]

Is the aircraft runway going to open? The ice looks pretty safe. Have to move one bob house if they do open it.

[Slickcraft]

Originally Posted by RailroadJoe

Is the aircraft runway going to open? The ice looks pretty safe. Have to move one bob house if they do open it.

Brian in the corner store would probably know, he is one of the runway plow guys.

[Bear Island South]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

I'm ready to write this "non-winter" off and move on to an early Spring.

BT

As of today only 50 more days until spring.