Syracuse.com - Spring is eight days away, yet most Central New York lakes remain frozen

[HuntingNY-News]

Up on the St. Lawrence River, most of the river remains frozen, with ice averaging 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep.

Let's put things in perspective. The first day of spring is eight days away (March 20) and the opening day of trout fishing season (April 1) is less than three weeks away.

As of today, though, every lake in Central New York, with the exception of Lake Ontario, and Cayuga and Seneca lakes, is still frozen over. Same with much of the St. Lawrence River. The result, among other things, has been a banner year for ice fishing.

"Up on the river, the ice in the bays averages 2 1/2 to 3 feet thick," said Todd Cerow, owner of the 1000 Island Bait Shop in Alexandria Bay. "In some places the channel is just starting to open up. However, I saw vehicles on the ice driving to Grindstone Island just a couple of weeks ago."

Randy Jackson, associate director of the Cornell Biological Field Station in Bridgeport, said many Central New Yorkers have been "spoiled" by the past few relatively mild winters. He said this year's winter is not really that unusual, noting it's reminiscent of winters 15 to 20 years ago. He said although it's one of the coldest in years, it's definitely not the snowiest in recent memory.

"Typically, the ice goes out on Oneida during the first week of April," he said, adding the latest ice has stayed on the lake was April 19 back in early 1970s.

This year, Jackson said, Oneida froze end to end on Dec. 17, "which is actually quite early." It's been frozen ever since. He conceded the April 19 ice out record could be in jeopardy this year if the temperatures continue to be cold in coming weeks.

Bruce Natalie, an environmental engineer for Cayuga County said Owasco Lake froze over on Jan. 23.

He said the last time Cayuga Lake froze over was in 1979. He said the lake's northern end is currently covered down to Great Gully, but several weeks ago it stretched down to Levanna.

Looking back at records and talking to members of the Owasco Lake Association, he said the last time Owasco Lake froze over was 2009. As for setting any records, he said, "this year may be the longest period the lake has been completely covered in more than 20 years. Right now, it's been frozen for more than six weeks."

As of last week, more than 91 percent of the Great Lakes were frozen over, with the exception of Lake Ontario, was 43 percent covered.

Bob Werner, a retired SUNY ESF professor who specialized in lake and fish studies,has lived on the west shore of the lake for more than 17 years. He said this year Skaneateles froze over Feb. 6. The last time that occurred was in the winter of 2004.

He said the reason Ontario, Cayuga and Seneca lakes (and often Skaneateles Lake) don't freeze over has to do the large volumes of water contained in each of the lakes' water basins and the amount of exposed surface areas of the waterways. Generally, shallow and wide lakes freeze over first.

In regard to the Finger Lakes, Seneca, Cayuga and Skaneateles Lakes are the deepest at 650, 435 and 300 feet, respectively. The characteristic comes into play because those waterways, due to their depths, have a greater capacity to store heat in their basins, which usually prevents them from freezing over. Skaneateles is the narrowest of the three and because of that, the heat does dissipate from the water as fast.

Werner explained that generally as water cools as a result of dropping air temperatures, it becomes heavier and sinks to the lake's bottom, causing the relatively warmer, deeper water in the basin to rise and mix with the water above it. This prevents or retards the freezing process.

However, when the water's surface temperature hits 39 degrees or less, an interesting phenomenon occurs, he said. The water actually becomes lighter and stays near the surface. When it hits 32 degrees, it freezes, creating an ice cover.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog