"Ice-in" has officially been declared on Lake Winnipesaukee — and according to Emerson Aviation, it’s the latest date for it to have settled over the lake in the last 50 years that it has flown over to observe the region.
All five ports used by the M/S Mount Washington were covered with a transparent layer of ice that's two inches thick on Sunday.
Dave Emerson, the founder of Emerson Aviation, said record-breaking cold this past weekend set an extreme cold freeze over the lake, and winds into Sunday morning caused this year's "ice-in."
“The cold weather that we had this past weekend got things stirred up,” he said. “Then we had the cool, cold night on Saturday, with calm winds. And it finally took and froze up.”
In his nearly 50 years of observing the lake, Emerson said this year’s ice-in is particularly thin.
“This is probably the latest and thinnest I've ever seen it,” he said.
According to Emerson, the ice is usually one to three feet thick by this point of the season, and last year's ice-in was on Jan. 18. He said this year’s mild winter weather delayed the ice-in.
“Most of the weather systems have been rain, except for two or three snowstorms that we've had,” he said.
Because the ice-in came later than usual, Emerson said it will be a while before the lake ices out. In the meantime, he recommends people should stay off the ice because of how thin it is.
“I would not venture out on it for nothing,” he said.
