This weekend, the Center for Limnology Twitter account was tagged in a post from the UW Department of Emergency Medicine’s chief flight physician and pilot, Mike Abernethy, who had been flying a helicopter over Lake Mendota on Saturday, January 9th. It’s a really cool view of the lake and you should watch it here. While …
In case you missed the news, Lake Mendota was officially deemed “frozen” by the Wisconsin State Climatology Office on Sunday. That January 3rd “ice on” date is about two weeks later than the median freeze date of December 20th, although it’s a far cry from the record late-freeze date of January 30th in 1932. This …
If you’ve been checking the forecast for Christmas Eve here in Wisconsin, you’ve no doubt seen that a bit of a cold snap is on its way. While the past several days have hovered just above freezing, we’re about to see single digit lows and highs in the teens for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning …
Holding History, a UW–Madison-based project, helps students explore how cultural knowledge is made and preserved and share what they learn with broader audiences. Their series, Water Lines, is produced by 2019 Trout Lake Station summer student, Julia Buskirk. Story and images by Julia Buskirk A lot of Lake Mendota’s drastic changes have occurred in the …
Holding History, a UW–Madison-based project, helps students explore how cultural knowledge is made and preserved and share what they learn with broader audiences. Their series, Water Lines, is produced by 2019 Trout Lake Station summer student, Julia Buskirk. Story and images by Julia Buskirk Lake Mendota, like most bodies of water, is part of a …
This weekend, my family and I went on a drive. These days, any chance to leave the house while still practicing safe social distancing feels like a blessing and this drive felt especially so. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and hints of the lush, green landscape Wisconsin will soon become were everywhere – …
Here in Wisconsin, like a lot of places, we are waiting for the reliably warm days of Spring. In the meantime, we’re seeing a lot of days with persistent, chilly winds. Stowing the winter gear in the attic might have to wait for another day, but those chilly winds play a big role in the …
Another year, another ice-off for Madison’s lakes. Yesterday, the Wisconsin State Climatology office – specifically Ed Hopkins (you should read this great write-up in the Wisconsin State Journal) – officially declared the surface of Lake Mendota to be more open water than solid ice – so the date of March 22nd, 2020 will go down …
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 …
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of catching a walleye or musky or pretty much any fish in Wisconsin, you might want to thank someone from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). They’re the folks tasked with stocking our lakes with fish, keeping an eye on fish populations and setting bag and size limits. …