Apr 15, 2009 6:43 pm US/Central
How Does Lake Minnetonka Determine Ice Out?
LAKE MINNETONKA, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Consider it the unofficial start to spring on Lake Minnetonka, when the Freshwater Society officially declares the ice is out.
CBS
At exactly 6:42 on Monday night it was the official Lake Minnetonka ice-out. But what does that really mean and how do they figure it out?
Consider it the unofficial start to spring on Lake Minnetonka, when the Freshwater Society officially declares the ice is out.
"It's not scientific," said Steve Gray, who called it after checking in with his spotters across the lake. He was filling in for his father.
"He's been the official caller for the last 50 years," said Gray.
The Freshwater Society has been collecting statistics for more than 150 years. Ice out is almost always the second or third week in April.
"The average ice out is April 13 and it happens, this years it went out on April 13," said Tom Skramstead with the Freshwater Society.
The rule is you have to be able to navigate in and out of every bay on Lake Minnetonka. For example, you don't have to go through the ice but there's a way around it.
"It's just a major milestone and we like to have some fun with it," said Skramstead.
They used to call ice out in different ways. Fifty years ago, it was when you could navigate between Wayzata and Excelsior.
"There was one era when they would put an old derelict car out on the ice in either Wayzata Bay or Spring Park Bay and people would take bets on when the car would fall through," said Skramstead.
And while the state ended that tradition in the 60s, the Freshwater Society expects their tradition to stick around.
"I think it's a rite of spring," said Gray.
Of the 150 years that they have measured the lake, the ice almost always goes out in April. It's gone out six times in March and six times in May.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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