REGIONAL— In the wake of the most unusual winter in northern Minnesota history, ice-out proved equally unusual on many lakes and rivers in the region— and not only because most lakes cleared of ice about two weeks earlier than average.
Take Lake Vermilion, where ice-out was called for Saturday, April 13. That’s 17 days earlier than its April 30 median ice-out date, but it was the places the ice lingered that offered up the biggest surprise of the season.
Traditionally, Big Bay, the largest and deepest expanse of water on the lake, is the last holdout for large ice floes on Vermilion. Not this year. Instead, Big Bay was clear of ice nearly a week before the last of the ice cleared from some of the more sheltered and shallower bays.
Even some tributary streams, like the Pike River flowage and the East Two River, held their ice longer than Big Bay this year. Indeed, the Tower harbor on the East Two River still had lingering ice as of Saturday, the same day that Vermilion was declared open water and a week after the ice had cleared from Big Bay. Typically, those streams clear of ice about a week before the ice clears from Big Bay.
The topsy turvy weather likely had something to do with it. The exceptionally warm February and early March nearly cleared some area lakes of ice in mid-March (which were poised to set new all-time records for earliest ice-outs) until a return to winter-like temperatures and heavy snow later in the month, helped to rebuild ice, at least temporarily.
While Vermilion cleared well ahead of normal this year, it was nearly a week later than Shagawa Lake, in Ely, which typically clears within a day or two of Vermilion. This year, the official ice-out was called from Grand Ely Lodge on Sunday, April 7, at 6:08 p.m.
Other ice-out dates include:
Eagles Nest One: April 14.
Fall Lake: April 12.
Lake Kabetogama: April 14.
As of early this week, ice could still be seen lingering on Burntside, Snowbank, and Trout lakes, as well as on most other larger lakes in the Boundary Waters, particularly east from Ely. Up at the border, ice was still lingering on Rainy Lake and there appeared to be dark ice remaining on Namakan and Sand Point as well as well as patches of ice on Crane Lake.