Late snow will delay Red Lake, Ontario ice-out

Heavy snowfalls that fell on Northwestern Ontario last week will certainly delay spring ice out on Red Lake, Ontario this year, as well as most lakes in Northern Ontario.
Red Lake got about 10 inches of snow while farther to the south some areas such as our winter home in Nolalu got 20 inches.
Until that snowfall most exposed areas, such as lakes, were nearly barren of snow, setting the stage for the spring thaw.
Now the meager warm temperatures, barely above freezing to this point in the day and far below freezing at night, will take a week or more in the case of Red Lake and probably several weeks in the Thunder Bay area to melt away the new snowfall. Until then virtually no melting of lake ice will begin.
There is currently three feet of ice on Red Lake and approximately that much snow in the bush although there is likely only about a foot on top of the lake ice.
The new snow reflects sunlight and discourages the lake ice from thawing, even when the temperature is above freezing.
The weather forecast, at least, is encouraging. Temperatures in the high single digits (Celsius) and even low double digits are in the offing. If driven into the snow by strong winds these temperatures will start to eat the snow away. Once it's gone we could be looking at up to a month before the 36 inches of lake ice melts.
You can check out the forecast yourself by clicking on it on our website's weather page.
Speaking of ice, the U.S. Coast Guard reported there was three feet of ice on about two-thirds of Lake Superior this spring. The big lake only freezes completely across about once every 40 years. It nearly did it this year.
It's been a long, cold winter up here. January and February saw just about every night go down to -30 C. We're used to it being cold but that's a long stretch for such bitter temperatures, even for us.
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