Last week most of the District’s lakes officially iced over. With the help of citizen volunteers reporting, lake ice-in dates were noted once the lakes were 90% covered in ice. This year’s ice over dates were much closer to average, unlike last year when lakes did not freeze over until the last few days of December.

This year, Haas Lake and Buck Lake were the first lakes which reported ice-on conditions on December 7th, 2016. Pike Lake was next on December 8th and Fish Lake, Spring Lake and Upper Prior Lake followed on December 9th. Lower Prior Lake was the last reporting lake which iced over on December 10th.

You can also view historical ice-on and ice-on off dates on our monitoring page.

Please remember that ice should be at least 4″ thick before you should walk out on the ice. New clear ice is stronger than white ice (or “snow ice”). Ice often freezes unevenly and can be influenced by many different factors. To learn more about ice thickness guidelines and ice safety, visit the Minnesota DNR’s website.