MADISON – In many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, frozen lakes define the winter experience and create an indelible sense of place. From ice fishing and hockey to skating, skiing and snowmobiling, icy lakes enable communities to engage in activities that aren’t possible in warmer seasons or climates. But these iconic cold-weather past-times could become …
Right now, Lake Mendota is mostly frozen over – its only open water way out in the middle of the lake where winds are keeping the surface too riled up to freeze. But, yesterday morning around 9:00 am, Lake Mendota was still mostly in its liquid form despite temperatures in the teens. A gentle, but …
EDITOR’S NOTE, DECEMBER 12, 2022: This article originally ran January 4, 2019. Here in December 2022, Lake Mendota is NOT yet frozen, but with some very cold days in the 10-day forecast, it seemed like a good time to dust it off! On the morning of Wednesday, December 19th, 2019, I got off the bus …
(This article was originally published January 22, 2018 and has been updated with photos from January 2022) by Adam Hinterthuer – Two weeks ago, I walked down the hill from my house to do something I’d never done before. On the shoreline of Lake Monona, in the time it took my wife to get herself …
Yesterday morning I brought breakfast to my daughters at our dining room table, glanced out the window and did a double take. The waters of Lake Monona were a churning mass of brownish bluish green. What had only the night before been a flat sheet of late-winter ice had disappeared, broken up by the unusually …
NOTE: This post originally ran on January 17, 2012. In the four of the five years since this post, Lake Mendota has frozen over well after its “median” freeze date, and in three of the five years it has thawed much earlier. A few days before Christmas, I was headed down John Nolen Drive on …
by Samantha Oliver Today, I woke up at my favorite place on earth – Ten Mile Lake, in Hackensack, Minnesota. On the coldest day of the winter thus far, the frozen lake is so bright, so sparkly, it is almost hard to look at. And when you are from a place where 30 below is …
We here at the Center for Limnology are dedicated to outreach. The more everyone knows about our lakes, the better off we’ll all be. That’s why we love events like the Clean Lakes Alliance’s Frozen Assets Festival – when Lake Mendota becomes an outdoor classroom for people across the city. Over the weekend of February …
It looks like ice-off is only a couple days away on Madison’s lakes. Before we hit the completely open water season, though, here’s a look back at some semi-frozen fieldwork from early March. Graduate student, Jake Walsh, shares his experience coring Lake Mendota’s sediment layers… by Jake Walsh The past couple of Mondays I’ve been out …
Happy New Year’s Eve! We here at the Center for Limnology wish you a 2015 filled with opportunities to get out on your favorite lake, river, stream or wetland. As a final post of the year, below are snippets of our top 3 posts from the year. As usual, stories about ice and clear water …