Our cold snap is refreezing quiet areas of open water. This is a view from one of the hiking trails on Tunnel Island.
Zoom in, and you’ll see that none of that surface is water.
This year, I’ve been talking a lot about snow cover. Here’s why, in pictures.
Satellite pictures, to be specific, taken by the MODIS cameras on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. You cannot zoom in on these pictures; they’re already at 100%. To see a satellite picture with the key parts of the lake labeled, click on the FAQ tab and scroll to the bottom.
This was taken yesterday: March 30, 2018. As you can see, there’s a lot of snow cover on the lake, although ice is starting to show through at the south end. I should mention that this is a colour photograph- it’s the landscape that’s black and white.
I couldn’t find a cloud-free picture for the right time of year from 2017 or 2016, but here’s a fairly clear one from March 29, 2015.
You’ll notice two things. The ice is blue, and there’s much less snow on the land. Further, I’m pretty sure those dark spots on the Big Traverse are patches of open water.
I’ll save you the trouble of going to the FAQ page to look it up on the graph; 2015 was a normal year, with the lake ice-free in the first days of May. This year’s snow cover looks nothing like 2015. And where the ice is showing through, it has not begun to darken.
So… gloom.
Lake of the Woods Ice Patrol 
April 31st???…if the ice looks like that it will be gloom.
Perhaps you are wishfully thinking further into the spring timeline!
Yeah, I must be wishing March to be over. I got the month wrong for a few minutes there.
I had the wrong month on the header of this post for a few minutes, and you’re right, I was thinking we’d better get March over with and move on!
I really enjoy the photographs of the Kenora District, water as well as the land. The whole presentation is well done. Your occupation allows you to be in a position to take these photographs which would be expensive to obtain under any other arrangement. Keep up the great job and know I am not the only one who appreciates this service.
Glenn Browne
Former resident of Kenora 1964-74.
Lancaster, MN
We’ll be lucky to be ice free by the May long weekend this year. Winter has been way too long.
Out of interest, I compared E.C. stats from 2013 when ice out was just before May long and 2014 which was after.
Average daily mean temps for March;
2013= -7.5, 2014= -11, 2018= -4.3
Snow on ground at end of March;
2013= 21cm, 2014= 50cm, 2018=15cm.
2018 looks more like 2013 so far, so maybe there’s hope for May long?
So is this an April fools joke? Since it’s April 1st not the 31st and there aren’t 31 days in April anyway! M
On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 10:37 AM Lake of the Woods Ice Patrol wrote:
> icecaptain posted: “Our cold snap is refreezing quiet areas of open water. > This is a view from one of the hiking trails on Tunnel Island. Zoom in, and > you’ll see that none of that surface is water. This year, I’ve been talking > a lot about snow cover. Here’s why, in” >
Sorry, I corrected it to March 31 within minutes, but apparently some people are still linking in to the misdated version.