Lake Ontario Shore Ice at Sandy Island Beach

Salmon River Falls During the Deep Freeze

Still No Swimming at Long Lake

Not only is there still ice down the lake

but the water flowing out the Raquette River can't handle the melt,

 so the lake is very high and the beach at Long Lake is flooded.

Adirondack Mountains From Long Lake Bridge

The white line on the water horizon is ice.

Same Adirondack Stream on Consecutive Days

Day # 1 Friday, March 11

Day # 2 Saturday, March 12

Liverpool: Snow and Ice Removal, Not Without Danger

Salmon River Falls: Blue Ice

While most of the falls is white-to-gray, what is it that makes this ice blue? Mineral deposits coming seeping from the upper shelves of sedimentary rock that form this escarpment? Ideas, anyone?

Addendum: Ahhh, Ed has done the research and discovered the science of color seen in ice, explained here. The site explains much more about natural color theory. 

The upshot is that blue color tells us the ice is clearer, so it absorbs more light. It absorbs reds and oranges, and reflects back blue. The more ice reflects light, if it is old and has undergone structural changes, the whiter it appears.

The color has nothing to do with minerals and seeps. 

Rap-Shaw: Walking on Lake Bottom

Ottawa: Skating on the Rideau Canal

We were in Ottawa last week for skating and a dining spree: The Black Cat, Frasier, Les Fougeres. Could it get any better than that? 

Ed, the super-taster, was delighted at every turn, not that I minded the indulgence.

I thrilled to glide again on Ottawa's historic, gigantic skating rink, coming in at Patterson Creek on a super cold clear morning. Not many people around this early; brand new surface. It was almost scary...the smoothness and vastness of the expanse of hard water! 

Patterson Creek, surrounded by an old residential neighborhood, flows into the Rideau. With its lovely heated Chalet it's a handy point of access.

Niagara Falls, Yesterday

Salmon River Ice Near Altmar

Salmon River Falls Near Altmar

Lake Ontario: Ice Far Offhore at Sandy Island Beach

Lake Ontario: Ice at Sterling Nature Center

Last Ice on Onondaga Lake

This is the end of ice on Onondaga Lake for the year...fragments pushed into a bay on the east side of the lake. Earlier in the week it persisted; see a photo posted here on April 2. Yesterday there was still a large semi-transparent sheet covering the northern third of the lake. Above freezing temps, a great thundering rainstorm last night, and huge winds from the west have demolished what remained by this morning. It sounded like breaking glass.

Stillwater Reservoir

April 3...The level is finally down in anticipation of spring runoff. Ice is still very thick, maybe 2 feet thick with snow on top. It was a sunny day. The walk to Rap-Shaw with Brenner was dramatic in vistas and thankfully uneventful. I wonder when the ice will finally go out.

Ice Remains on Onondaga Lake

Ice on Onondaga Lake into April is rare. Some years the lake does not freeze at all. This year it has been almost completely covered since the first week in January. 

Giant Ice

Water backed up behind giant ice dams has caused headaches for homeowners and some unexpected winter income for roofers this week.

Sandy Island Beach: Ice to the Horizon

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I longed to look at the ice from the perch along the beach this week. Tuesday dawned clear and remained so, with the lake effect snow coming ashore ten miles to the north, so Brenner and I clambered through drifts, faced a stiff and cold wind on the return, and achieved the objective. There was no other person around, and parking was scarce. 

The sea out beyond, hardly visible but for a sliver, was green, rough and rolling, and about the most inhospitable place I can imagine, at least around here.

Big Ice at Sandy Island Beach

This was the scene a week ago on a perfectly calm and not terrifically cold day along Lake Ontario. Surprising to me is that people had been driving large-tire vehicles along the shore edge of the ice to get to their camps further out the peninsula, or perhaps to access the ice for fishing on the inland pond.

The ice field you see here is the result of deep cold that began to freeze Lake Ontario, followed by very strong winds that are almost always westerly here, pushing it all up against the shore in a dense pack. At the North Sandy Pond outlet, a mile north of here, ice crammed into the outlet and blocked drainage of the ponds, North and South, for several days causing major flooding to many camps along the ponds.

Below are two early spring photos from other years taken from the same platform for comparisons' sake.

If I could, I would go to Sandy Island Pond tomorrow because I think the scene will be spectacular. We are having another Arctic blast of cold and a lot more wind and snow from the west. The weather will be poor for exploration for another day or more. Lake effect snow is making driving impossible at times and impossible to predict, extending along a wide swath east of the lake. This evening that snow belt reached all the way to Saratoga Springs, more than one hundred miles away. 

On Wednesday, or Thursday, but maybe not until Friday, a road trip is in store.

additional, partial advisory for Tuesday am:

•  IMPACTS...HEAVY LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL RESULT IN SNOW COVERED 
  ROADS ALONG WITH BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND PERIODIC 
  WHITEOUT CONDITIONS THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY DIFFICULT TO 
  NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE AT TIMES. IN ADDITION...VERY COLD WIND 
  CHILLS WILL RESULT IN A RISK OF HYPOTHERMIA AND FROSTBITE FOR 
  ANYONE OUTSIDE FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME WITHOUT PROPER 
  CLOTHING.