Larry Wood
Dear editor:
I read with interest the column headlined “Call of the lake already beckoning” (From the Publisher’s Pen) in the March 25 edition of the Times.
The serious question being, “When will the lake go out?”
For the publisher, here are some stats I’ve had the opportunity to research from the climatological archives for Minnesota.
According to the Minnesota Climatology Working Group (University of Minnesota) for historical lake “ice-out” dates, the following breakdown deals with three of the major lakes in our area:
•Lake Kabetogama—average “ice-out” is April 28, with the earliest being April 13, 1998 and the latest being May 18, 1996 (this data was collected over 20 years);
•Lake of the Woods—average “ice-out” is April 29, with the earliest being April 8, 2000 and the latest being May 16, 1996 (this data from a 19-year period); and
•Rainy Lake—average “ice-out” is May 3, with the earliest being April 13, 1998 and the latest being May 22, 1950 (the data for Rainy Lake was gathered from 78 years of records).
All the above records were last modified on May 1, 2008.
So now the publisher can have “sleepless nights” dreaming of when the ice will go out on Rainy.
My guess would be during the first full week in May!
Meanwhile, to the “novice” and his partner, John Maffei (a former colleague of mine), good fishing in the 2009 Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.
Yours truly,
Larry Wood
Fort Frances, Ont.
