40 degrees F Cloudy Wind 10mph N
Sunrise 6:01am CDT Sunset 8:19pm CDT
Winter continues in Minnesota!
After a few days of 'normal' warmer weather over the weekend, winter seems determined to flex its muscles and make its return.
The area is under a WINTER STORM WARNING until 10am tomorrow!
A Winter Storm Warning means 'snow accumulations of 6 inches or more'.
It snowed heavily here for a while this morning. But the afternoon has brought only cold clouds, scattered sprinkles of rain and a bitter biting wind off the lake! We are 30 degrees colder than we were yesteray.
The ice finally went out of the lake sometime between 6:30am and 11:30am yesterday morning. I was gone so I did not see it go out nor do I know the exact timing. I was surprised when I came home and saw that it was gone and there were just the remains of some of the ice along one shore.
I had really thought that it would be another day or two before trhe ice went out, with as thick as it had been.
This has been the latest ice out that I have seen in over thirty years. The previous latest ice out date was April 23 in 1996. There have been numerous April ice out dates but never a May date in over thrity years.
When I left early in the morning, 2/3 of the lake was still ice covered. So it was a shock to see the lake ice free when I came home.
I have spent the last couple days rebuilding the nesting platform so it is essentially ready to go in the water. The good folks from BroadbandMN were planning on being here this afternoon to mount the camera and do the thousand and one things that are required to bring the picture and sound to you. They called this morning and said that their head 'tech wizard' is sick and that it would be this weekend before they could come out to do all the technical stuff.
They were as disappointed as I was but it is what it is and we just have to deal with it. It would not have been very pleasant having to do all that work in the snow and rain and cold.
Just know that we will have it up and running as soon as possible. I appreciate all they do.
If there is one ray of hope in this latest storm forecast, it is that we may be far enough north and west of the main line of the storm to escape the worst of the snow accumulation. We will just have to wait and see.
We will know by this time tomorrow night!
Copyright 2013 Larry R Backlund