Just a quick bulletin today.
Kingsley Bowles sent me this picture of Shoal Lake this afternoon. He neatly captured a shot of the ice in the southern half of the lake in the late morning.
You can click on it to zoom in.
Shoal Lake.
Substantial sheets of ice are still present in the south part of Shoal Lake. However, the ice north of Dominique Island and Stevens Islands that was evident yesterday is rapidly disappearing today. Falcon Lake and West Hawk Lake are visible in the upper left corner. Thanks, Kingsley.
Let’s take a quick gander at one of the MODIS images. Here’s Terra‘s view from this morning.
MODIS image of Lake of the Woods from Terra satellite, May 11, 2023, in false colour.
The ice on Shoal Lake is still visible from space. It looks like there’s some in the middle of Little Traverse Bay on Lake of the Woods, too. I’m not sure what that pale streak is down in Buffalo Bay. Could be dissipating ice, but it seems to continue on land, so perhaps it’s cloud or smoke.
I thought I’d overrule my usual preference for the false colour infra-red images and switch to true colour visible light version to see if it becomes more clear.
MODIS image of Lake of the Woods from Terra satellite, May 11, 2023, in TRUE colour.
You can see why I usually stick to the false colour ones, but to my eye, the white streaks in the lower part of the image do look more like cloud by natural light. Only the stuff on Shoal Lake shows the clear cracking pattern of ice.
Signs of spring:
- Saw my first garter snake yesterday
- And my first dandelions.
- And a lovely little pale blue butterfly.
Lake of the Woods Ice Patrol 
Made it into Ptarmigan this afternoon. Light easterly breeze and no ice in sight.