Ice out 2010

[pkresorts]

Greetings,
The grass is turning green in Hornepayne and the Ravens have shown up already with the Robins not far behind. Looks like an early opening this year which great having opening day for Walleye on May 15th. Spring fishing should great.

Cheers,
Paul

[heet]

Not much to see from Monday's satellite picture. You can see that there's not much if any ice remaining around the Thunderbay area.

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/mod...r.143.250m.jpg

As for the weather, Hornepayne has had highs in the 50's the last 3 days with generally 50's predicted for the next 15 days.

[heet]

There's still not definite proof of ice out. Today's shot has a lot of popcorn type clouds and it tough to tell the lakes from the shadows from the clouds. But, you can see some small lakes north of Wawa that are ice free. It can't be long now if it hasn't happened already, I just wish we could get a cloud-free picture. Here's todays best shot...

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/mod...r.143.250m.jpg

This from Accuweather's Brett Anderson "The "sea ice" over southern Hudson Bay is clearly breaking up earlier this season compared to the last two years, especially over the southwestern side. Below is the latest image from April 5, 2010 - plenty of open water now along the southwest coast. Also note the distinct lack of snow cover over land in the bottom left of the image. The winter of 2009/2010 was likely the warmest in this region since 1948."

[pkresorts]

I've heard folks are using their boats on all Lakes in the Hornepayne area.

Cheers,
Paul

[Loco101]

I live in Timmins which is at about 48 degrees North in Northeastern Ontario. The ice has now come off most of our small lakes. Of the lakes in town, it is off Gillies and Pearl. It is now off of Porcupine Lake which is usually the last to go in right in town. Nighthawk Lake, the largest within city limits still has ice but it won't be long.

The average ice-out date for the Timmins area is May 8th. This year is a record (April 6-7th) for the earliest in our city's history. We have had some years where the ice has remained until about May 20-25.

During Easter weekend we had two days with highs of 29 and 26 Celcius (85 and 80 F) and then a bunch of days with highs from 15-20 (60-70). Hornepayne and other places further west didn't get quite as warm but still have had major melting. The sun gets much more powerful this time of year and melting the ice directly and there has been no snow on top of it for awhile which is unusual.

It was a record low for snowfall over the winter for many places in Northern Ontario which meant that the ice wouldn't last if any warm spell came. It was also probably the warmest winter on record for many locations.

I have seen people towing motorboats and taking advantage of the pickerel (walleye) fishing before it closes for a month or so.

[heet]

Thanks Paul and Loco101! You can look at satellite pictures and weather reports all you want, but there's nothing like confirmation from someone at the scene. I guess we can declare ice out to be April 5/6. When I started this thread on March 2, I certainly expected to be going longer than 35 days.

We will be at Buck in 44 days. I guess it's time to tie some spinners, make some pickles, put on new line, and type the grocery shopping list. Thanks for following along with me - it's been fun - and in the words of Al Lindner, "See you on the water"! Well do it again next year!