THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, April 8, 2010
ICE OUT AND WHAT IT MEANS
by Mildred Beach
Wolfeboro, NH
Since early days Ice Out
on Lake Winnipesaukee has held great meaning to many people, in many dif- ferent ways. In early days Ice Out opened the trans- portation lanes, as Spring
ing of Ice Out important to merchants and woods- men and, referring to old records, helped them to plan. Records for Lake Win- nipesaukee have been kept since 1887. Ice Out on Lake Winnipe-
saukee has been as early as March 24th in 2010,
by Dr. William K. Widgert, Jr. formerly of Meredith. In 1974 he combined all known records and weath- er information over those years and truly analyzed the many factors governing this annual event. Interestingly, the aver- age deviation over this to-
tal time is only 9.2 days. The established criteria for Ice Out currently used is when the M/S Mount Washington can reach all of her ports of call: Center Harbor, Wolfeboro, Alton Bay, Weirs Beach and back to Center Harbor. Occa- sionally there have been
delays on Ice Out due to winds moving ice to close to the entrance of Alton Bay, or one of the other ports. One tricky spot is the path between Bear Island and Moultonboro’s mainland, which can still be ice locked when much of the rest of the lake is clear. Some of the factors affect-
ing Ice Out are consecutive- ly above normal warm days in March; snow fall followed by rain, that raises the lake level, so that ice breaks away from the shoreline and winds that accompany weather fronts that pass thru in April. Fog will also eat at the ice. Warm nights help its departure. as do
See BEACH on 12
3
NH
GEORGE HURT
REPUBLICAN
for NH State Senate District Four
An early morning, scenic view of Lake Winnipesaukee from an overlook in Meredith.
DAVID LAWTON PHOTO
had turned dirt roads into muddy, impassable routes. The open water of the big lake, made it possible to bring supplies from Alton Bay to Meredith, lumber from Moultonboro to Weirs Beach, as well as connec- tions from Wolfeboro to Gilford and Melvin Village to Weirs. These needs, after a long Winter, made the record-
and as late as May 12th in 1888. The most frequent ice out
has been April 20th, when it departed nine times. The month of March has only had three departures dates and the month of May has seen it depart on twelve dif- ferent years. No doubt the best re-
search on Ice Out for Lake Winnipesaukee was done
Expires 08/31/10
Alton, Barnstead, Belmont, Gilford, Gilmanton, Laconia, New Durham, Strafford, Tilton.
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