The life of ice is surprisingly tenuous, given the steadiness of the building blocks involved. Here it is day two, and a seemingly innocuous event which would be beneficial under other circumstances, threatens the very existence of the ice. The threat I refer to is snow. The ice is barely a couple of inches at it's thickest. Temperatures are forecast for 20's & 30's today, overcast this morning with some clearing mid-day. Perfect conditions for melting the ice. While snow provides insulation, it also traps atmospheric dust within. The dust acts like a solar collector, warming the ice from above. The ice will thin. Tomorrow's weather will provide the coup de grace. . . Two to three inches of rain. What little snow we have will hold the rain in place to aid melting. Late Wednesday as the front pushes through a brisk northerly wind is forecast. Wind will be the death knell for the ice. It will be Friday before conditions are right to allow the ice to form anew.
And So It Goes.
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2 comments:
When I lived in Pennsylvania, I decided I wanted to ice fishing. So I bought an auger and a little short ice pole. The next day we had a warm spell and the ice got way too thin and never froze enough the rest of the winter. The next year it never froze over and the next year I moved out of state. Sold that stuff cheap.
Very rare to have an "open year" but I've seen it once here and a time or two on the big lake in Vermont. When I was a kid in Pennsylvania, ice strength was always pretty iffy around Philly.
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