will the snow kill the ice?

[mrpike1973]

hi i live near hutch sounds like 2-6 of snow ouch i think our 2 inches of ice is ruined say it aint so

[Mike Stark]

the snow will push down on the ice causing water to come up through the cracks. this causes slush. the snow and slush will also insulate the ice which will slow down the ice making process. once you get a lot of snow/slush on the ice you either need a big thaw to knock down the snow/slush or a deep freeze to lock the slush up. the same thing happened here in ely last week. we still dont have safe ice.

[Ryan_V]

Ruined is a stretch, but depending on how much we get, it will slow the ice making process down.

[Norm1980]

around Mankato were getting rain that can't be good either, but probably better then snow. I think with only a couple inches of ice it might be better if the snow/water melts what ice is there so the lake can start all over. Maybe get some good ice that way, i don't think 2" of ice then frozen slush makes for very strong ice?

[Mike Stark]

slush/snow ice is not nearly as strong as clear black ice.

[leech~~]

It maybe better to get this rain right now which will knock down some of the snow which will then just turn into more water to freeze harder when it does get cold again? I hope?

[Mike Stark]

the warm temps and possible rain will be a good thing for any lake that has a lot of snow/slush on it.

[McGurk]

"Rain is a good thing."

Couldn't ask for a better option to get rid of what little snow we have on the ice right now. Now, if we had 6" of ice and a foot of snow on top, that would be different. Then rain is NOT a good thing.

[icekid10]

with the rain and warm temps it wont get good in the metro with the little ice we have.. hopefully we see colder temps so we keep the little ice we do have....

[toughguy]

The ice will be ok. It's been snowing, melting, raining, and refreezing like this for years and it always turns out ok.

[icekid10]

thats true. just takes a little longer to get out for early ice when it rains.

[IceCrappie]

This snow shouldn't do too much damage in the metro. But it'd be best to just start all over and freeze fast, makes for stronger ice. I was out at a few lakes around the metro yesterday and all of 'em had bout 2" max of white ice. We need it to get cold quick and make "black ice". what we got now is not strong enough to hold a good sized man safely. 2nd week of Dec. we'll be safe I hope.

[Greg Clusiau]

What toughguy said!

[leech~~]

What toughguy said!

toughguy stop trying to make us feel better!

It's all melting away! All is lost! It's hopeless!

[dougger222]

I was out on the ice the last two nights and this rain is going to keep me home for a couple nights now...

Hope we don't get the heavy wet snow we got a couple weeks ago. That will hurt the ice big time. Rain turned to snow, there's a good chance.

[McGurk]

Well, I think the forecast is calling for less than 3" of snow across most of the state, and winds today and tomorrow. That will keep the open lakes open and possibly even open up previously capped lakes. Use caution on the ice for the next week, but I think we are will have some great ice-making weather Thursday through Sunday. Winds will die down, temps will be between 10-25 deg, and not much snow expected for the next 5 days. These cold lakes will make ice fast!

[Gissert]

I just checked the lake I live on. It had about 2 inches prior to the warm up on Sunday, and the snow yesterday.

The amounts were not high, and the strong wind has blown a lot of it off.

The danger will be right close to shore, primarily.

The snow is drifting, and it is very soggy and wet. The wind pushing on the ice surface along with the heavy snow drifts is squeezing a lot of water out the edges.

The temps forecast for the rest of the week should help a lot, but there could be a lot of iffy ice at access points.

[south_metro_fish]

Oh boy, another 4-8 tomorrow into Sat. Cant it wait just one more week before it dumps snow like that, we have such a nice week of cold temps coming next week. Hopefully the wind will keep it from piling up again on the lake. Hope to check the ice out on Fri and Sat.

[Acemac]

mehh..... we will be drving by the 1st so who cares.

[McGurk]

Good early ice is the exception, not the rule. While I think we all wish for a certain 1 week weather-perfect cold and calm period for ice building and grumble about it not happening, we should instead be happy with what we get when we get it, and make the most of it!