Photograph courtesy Tom Tollefson May 12, 2013 (NW from South Shore Drive Big Detroit Lake, Detroit Lakes, MN USA)
Ah Spring!
A year ago we had been boating for six weeks at this point
in the season, thanks to the March 23rd ice-out, very nearly the earliest on record.
That followed an ice-over period of less than four4 months, one of the shortest
on record. What a difference a year makes!
Sunday, May 12 is the 2013 Detroit ice-out date; that is the
day when more than 90% of the lake was ice-free; only windblown ice remained,
accumulated by strong northwest winds, and trapped along the southeast
shoreline between the bluff and the DNR wetland near the intersection of East
and South Shore Drives. That accumulated ice disappeared the next morning.
Other nearby Lakes reported ice out dates a day earlier – Long,
Big Floyd and Sallie on Saturday.
The latest Detroit ice-out in 121 years of record is May 17,
1950. This year's date is tied for 2nd place with May 12, 1893 for late ice-out
honors. Detroit has experienced May ice-outs in about 1 in 8 years, the last
being May 1, 2008; before that we go back to May 5, 1996, but in the 1970's
there were five May ice-outs.
For the 2012/13 season ice was on the lake from November
24th, a total of 168 days. The average ice cover duration is 151 days, or 17 days
less than this winter. But in the last
twenty years the average duration of the ice-cover on Detroit has been 137 days,
31 less than this year. And twelve years have seen longer ice-coverage; twice, in
1919/20 and 1935/36 ice was on Detroit for 184 days, more than half a year.
Last summer we had 247 ice-free days on Detroit. If freeze-up comes by November 18 (the
long-time average), we would have almost 2 months less boating time this year
than last..
P.S. In spite of the
ice situation, don’t think this was a severe winter – it wasn’t! Yes, December and January were both warmer than
average, and even February wasn’t so bad.
The coldest temperatures only reached minus 25 degrees, and only two
days’ high temperatures remained below zero (the average is eight). I’ll grant
you it was a very cold March and April, and snowy too (we broke a 25 year
record for snowfall for the February through April period).
Dick Hecock
Lake Detroiters Environmental Chair
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