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Old 12-16-2013, 01:20 PM   #35
Merrymeeting
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Location: Merrymeeting Lake, New Durham
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Originally Posted by Merrymeeting View Post
While I can only see about 1/3rd of the lake from my house, and the other end usually freezes last, I believe we have ice-in on Merrymeeting.

It skimmed over the night before last. Wind yesterday broke up much of it. But for the first time, several large ice floes remained at the end of the day, and they rejoined during the night. I woke up at about 2:30 last night, and in the bright moonlight I could still see several areas of open water where the water was rippling. But by this morning, those were closed up and there is now ice as far as we can see from this end. Once it closes up and the wind can’t whip up the waves, it usually stays. Especially with the temps we have now!

Most of the surface is rough, and it will be covered with snow tonight. Sadly, I’m sure we’ll be hearing reports over the next few days of snowmobiles going in as the surface will look inviting to some dummies, but I’m sure won’t be safe in all areas.
To misquote Mark Twain, my reports of ice-in on Merrymeeting were greatly exaggerated.

It turns out that the larger portions of the lake that I couldn't see are still open. Even more interesting, the portions that were ice covered are opening up again. This despite the fact that temps haven't gone much above 20 for the past 72 hours or more. I'm guessing it's a combination of insulating snow allowing melting from below, coupled with winds that are now picking up again. Things are opening up when I would have expected the reverse.
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