Official 2017 Ice Out Thread
 

This is the Official 2017 Ice-Out Thread. If you reply to this thread all of the information about this year's ice-out will be easily accessible to our forum friends.

I thought this thread was early last year on March 1 and here we are on February 27 watching the ice go out. The ice in front of my house on the broad side of Rattlesnake Island looks uneven and punky.

Post your observations, concerns, pictures and whatever else comes to mind re: ice-out. We love your pictures!

The Ice-Out page is up at http://www.rattlesnakecam.com/watch.htm.

There you will find all of the Winnipesaukee WebCams to watch the ice melt as well as links to special ice out features such as Saunder's Bay daily picture with information about previous year's ice out. (I will post link when it is available.)

Ice-out has occurred in recent years when the lake temperature is from 39-41 degrees as reported by the Winnipesaukee Dataphone at the Lakeport Dam. Today the temp is 35 degrees. (it was 38 on March 1 last year)

Let's get on with our favorite activity ... Ice-Out!
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Island Girl

Next Few Days
 

Tomorrow and Thursday should cause some serious damage to the ice on the lake. Between the rain, the 60 degree temperature and the high winds, this is a perfect recipe to erase a lot of ice! Lets just hope the winds don't raise havoc with anyone's dock!

Dan

Getting gray
 

The ice is getting gray, a sure sign of ice out coming early this year.

View today from Scenic Road, near Ellacoya. Looking toward Welch. A bit less ice than seen in ishoot's photo from 2 days ago.
https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums...ad.php?t=21717

Alan

From Erika's Cam
 

There must be damage done to the ice with all of this fog today. Just a beautiful picture.

Anyone have a reliable way to get the water temperature? In the past, the water temperature has been a good indicator of impending ice-out. Once it went over 38 degrees, ice-out was usually shortly thereafter.

Ice and whitecaps, view today from Belknap Point.

The Dam
 

I call the Winnipesaukee Data Phone. They report several data points including the Lake Temperature. I post that from time to time at www.rattlesnakecam.com/watch.htm.

I use this because it is what has been used for many years. Yesterday and todays temp was 37. The previous two days were 35, then 36. My recollection is that ice out happens at 39 or warmer.

603-527-0071 The lake temp is the last data point he reads right after the precipitaition.

IG

I would say we should be thickening the ice up over the next few days especially Fri-Sun highs teens/twenties, lows near zero.. The bays must still have good ice, it was definitely much better than last year

Melting today
 

Here is from Melvin Village

Broadside Rattlesnake Island
 

Things have opened up a bit this afternoon.

Attachment 12762

BearCam
 

From Bear Island.. this opened up a lot today.

Looking towards Rattlesnake and Sleepers:

Official 2017 Ice Out Thread
 

Long Island yesterday.Attachment 12765

I was very bored so I took a look at the 130 ice out dates and I came up with some interesting observations.
Not in any particular order
Over the 130 years the average ice out is April 19th.
The earliest ice out was in 2016 which occurred on March 18th
The latest ice out was on 12 May in 1888
Ice out has occurred in March 5 times ( three of them in the last 7 years)
Ice out has occurred in May 13 times, the most recent was in 2001
Ice out normally occurs in April, 112 times
The latest ice out average for any ten-year period was the first ten years’ records were kept when it averaged ice out on April 26th.
The earliest ice out average for any ten-year period is the last ten years when it has averaged ice out on April 11th.
The latest ice out average for any twenty-year period was the first twenty years’ records were kept when it averaged ice out on April 23rd
The earliest ice out average for any twenty-year period is the last twenty years when it has averaged ice out on April 13th.
The all-time average ice out over 130 year is 19 April
From 1888 to 1959 ice out average was on 19 April
Since 1950 the ice out average is on 18 april
Since 1960 the ice out average was on 18 April
Since 1970 ice out average was on 17 April
Since 1980 ice out average was on 15 April
Since 1990 ice out average was on 14 April
Since 2000 ice out average was on 13 April
Since 2010 out ice average was on 8 April
2 times in the last 3 years, ice out has been later than the 19th of April the 130 year average. The other year was the earliest ice out ever.
Not that it has anything to do with Lake Winne, but the ice on my farm pond in Northern Mass went out on Feb 27th last year which was the earliest I ever remember in the last 6o years This year it was out on Feb 26th

Welcome to the forum Jim. I guess that is was a slow day.:D

Just Brutal
 

The wind for the past few days has really been brutal! I have been watching these giant ice sheets go flying across the broads on a daily basis. These ice chunks have to end up somewhere. I hope everyone's docks downwind don't get too beat up!

Dan

In spite of the cold, there is more open water visible form Belknap Point than 3 days ago. The wind won out.

Beautiful crystal clear shot today...

Rattlesnake today
 

http://https://www.winnipesaukee.com...1&d=1488755015

Took a ride to check out Rattlesnake today and this is what we found!!

Looks like the wind is breaking up the ice fast!

view from Cow Island
 

Looking Northeast, Shaw peak, Today 10:30

Looking across to Bear/Pine from Sheps, on Saturday.

Image from Broads Side of Rattlesnake 3/8/17
 

Picture from broads side of Rattlesnake...I see more water out there in the distance!

It looks like there is still a bob house off Long Island almost straight out from the lighthouse. See Trexler's webcam. I wonder if whatever is out there can even be retrieved at this point.

The recent ice outs definitely suggest a warming trend-and this year will be no exception. Winters here have turned into a kind of blah more inconvenient mess than fun winter activities. NOT a political opinion just an objective dispassionate observation.

Open
 

Now the icebergs begin on the very windy day. Pray for no damage out three

Gunstock View yesterday
 

This is the view from the top of Gunstock Mountain yesterday afternoon. Not shown, the south end of Rattlesnake was open all the way to Ship and Moose Islands. The south side of the peninsula was open. As you can see the Broads were wide open. North side of Rattlesnake peninsula was cracking, as was Alton Bay.
In spite of weather forecast this weekend, it won't be long!

The Broads off Rattlesnake-Ice Out 2017 Video clip
 

Here is the broads going out this morning from 7-9 am.

http://www.rattlesnakecam.com/IceOut2017-TheBroads.mp4

You can't stop Mother Nature!

IG

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5kEHFS1I18Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Great video, IG! The winds are fierce here today out of the northwest, as your video certainly shows.

A lot more water showing off of Belknap Point today. Cold and very windy so I was a wimp and took the photo sitting in my truck. Looks like the wind caused the lake to tilt:D

Getting There!
 

Almost all slush on the West side of Welch!!!

https://video.nest.com/clip/0dfe2032...6fc036682a.mp4

Dan

What ice?! From Long Island this afternoon...

Recognized that awesome view almost immediately, :) thanks for posting.

Darwin Awards, again?
 

My friends are launching a pontoon boat at Ames Farm as I type this and heading to Rattlesnake Island, Broad side. Watch for them on the web cams. They will be waving. Unfortunately, I could not go. We have always been on the island prior to official Ice Out, but not this year for me.


Looking forward to a long season on the lake.

In my humble opinion, that is crazy as there is still a ton of ice west of rattlesnake that could very easily and will eventually get blown in that direction possibly locking them in. I have been watching the ice flows all week from my home heading east some are huge!

To each their own I guess.....

Dan

No one yet
 

No boat has gone my my cams yet. The saving grace today is it is dead calm. There are a lot of iceberg floating around. I hope they are very careful.

IG

That is one incredible video that really shows what happens. Where did it all end up? Wow!

History Tells
 

If history is any indication: Right thru my dock

Darwin II
 

They made it out and sent a pic. No ice in sight. They would love to be stuck out there. They would crank up the fire and hunker down. It has happened to them before.