While it wasn’t a record-setting early date for Lake Mendota to return to its more, um, liquid state this year, the official March 10th “ice-off” date is right in line with the long term trend that’s moving Mendota’s typical melt date from early April (as was the norm 100 years ago) to early March over the last couple of decades. You can check out the historical graph here, thanks to our North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research data. You can also hit “play” on the video below from some cool time-lapse footage from Saturday’s big melt. (Courtesy of the UW-Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and their rooftop camera!)