« Previous

An Isle of Spring in an Ocean of Winter

 Next »

January 29th through February 4th, 2024

Last week started out seasonably, then got better. By Sunday, the high touched 50°F. There was talk of tree tapping. A check of the morning low, 14°F, quickly silenced that. The warmer days were paired with chilly mornings that painted trees with frost. The pleasant days have made the birds more active. Especially the red ones. The activity on Metonga's eagle nest also increased. Despite the warmer weekend, nobody golfed. The front nine had too much snow on some of the tees, most of the greens, and all of the fairways. Ditto for the back nine. Some evenings had a few clouds that made for great sunsets. Other evenings had a few campfires that tried to extend the warm past sunset. A few weeks ago, strong winds blew most of the snow from the lake. The stuff that remained, melted during the day. The cold nights refroze the puddles and now Lucerne has a smooth, hard, super slippery surface. The lake had the perfect surface for relocating boat lifts without bothering that pontoon crane guy. There's still some snow on all that ice. Most of it is in the form of bottle rocket war fort ruins. When the temperature drops the lake starts to boom with ice making. There are stress cracks all over. There are patches of Knott Lane that are clear with all the traction of summer. Other spots freeze hard at night and have all the un-traction of winter. There's still snow in the woods! It's deeper than you'd think. After the warm and cold cycles of last week, it's getting as hard as lake ice. One of the final tasks of last week was to check the ice thickness. Wandering out onto the surface was done carefully with spikey shoes. There's just under 13 inches of very good ice covering the lake. The men agreed that this year, a first ever February ice-out ain't gonna happen. So far the winter of '23/'24 has been a good one. The lake had a very late ice-in, Deep Winter hit us for less than two weeks, and snow storms have been few and far between. Last week's warm made it better. This small island of spring had a few shedding their hats as it melted the ice and snow from most of the roads (alas, Knott Lane was not one of 'em). Anyone who has experienced winter here knows that this will not last. We are just hoping that when this spring isle drops off back into the waters of winter it's more of a shallow sea than a deep ocean. Either way, the annual Lake Lucerne Ice-Out contest will not be up soon.<br><br><br>-Nemo, sliding boat lifts over the ice since <a href='/WeeklySummaryPages/2015/0316/SpringN.html' class ='defaultlink2' target='_blank'>2015</a>.

2024 Archives All Archives

Classic View Home

knottlane.com