Hi Everyone,
Wow did Ice Out happen quickly this year! Last week you could tell the ice was thinning and on Friday there was a lot of open water at the north end of the lake. Yesterday we could see the open water expanding around the edges of the south shore but didn’t expect to wake up this morning and see the whole lake opened up. Last night the winds ramped up and continued today to push all the ice down and out. From what I can see from unofficial dates kept by Ted Starkweather, this is the earliest Ice Out we have had. The previous earliest date was March 17th in 2016. Ted’s dates go back to 1998.
I received the year end VLAP report on the quality of our lake from Sara Steiner at DES. This information is gathered four times during the summer by our passionate water testing team – Brian Campbell, Paul Duncanson, Jim Berry, Neil Twomey and Bernie Rousseau. Webster Lake has been participating in this program for many years and the information gathered is so valuable for DES to see what trends are happening in NH lakes. As you will note in the Recommended Actions area, climate change is having an impact on our lakes and it is very important that we all keep in mind the highlighted watershed management practices as we maintain our lake shore property. Ice In/Ice Out dates can very much be affected by these climate changes and shorter ice in time can affect lake quality, quantity and ice on recreational activities.
The WLA 50th anniversary committee has been working hard on a plan for celebrating this milestone. I want to thank the members of the committee for volunteering to take on this endeavor. Committee members are Deb Parker, Nancy Moulton, Allison Goodwin, Brian Campbell and Denise Steadman. Please see a second email from them with lots of fun stuff.
Even though it is not even the first day of Spring yet, with the ice free lake we can begin dreaming of docks in, boats launched and maybe swimming:)
Take care,
Val