Old Retired Guy Blog
March 25, 2010
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The Ice CycleFor three winters now we've lived about two blocks from Lake Mendota. Almost every time we go for a walk we end up at one or more of the public access points so that we can just look at it. I find it interesting to watch how the lake changes over the seasons. The most interesting to me is to watch it slowly change from liquid to solid and back to liquid again as the winter waxes and wanes.
In mid-December the lake began to steam as it gave up its heat to the cold fronts that moved into Wisconsin. Thin layers of ice started to form around the edge of the lake. Eventually ice covered all of the lake and, as it thickened and expanded, you could hear strange noises, much like the sound of whales. This was occasionally accented by a sharp cracking sound.
The expanding ice eventually forces itself up into pressure ridges because it has nowhere else to go. When the ice is thick enough, the first anxious ice fishermen drag their ice shanties out onto the lake and begin their winter rituals. Winter lovers know that they will have 2 months or more to enjoy the newly recaptured territory. If not too much snow covers the ice, ice skaters and ice boats can also be seen moving across the lake. If the snow gets deeper, cross-country skiers will make their way across the flat wide expanse of white.
As spring approaches the ice gets soft and rotten and open water begins to appear around the shoreline. Then it's only a matter of time before the ice is gone. I went down to the lake today. A strong wind was coming out of the north making it very cold along the southern shore. The wind had broken up most of the remaining ice and pushed piles of it along the shoreline. In some places it was probably ten feet deep. The broken chunks of ice were not single pieces but instead were made up of five or six layers. It will be cold again tonight but the forecast shows much warmer weather moving in next week. I imagine that will convince the last bits of ice to liquefy and get on with the lake's new year.
End of 'The Ice Cycle' Entry |
