Official 'Ice Out' on Lake Winnipesaukee is earliest ever

GILFORD – The earliest Ice-Out in the history of Lake Winnipesaukee was recorded Friday morning at 9:30 a.m.

Dave Emerson of Emerson Aviation, the lake's official Ice-Out observer, said that the last of the ice which had been blocking Center Harbor Bay Thursday afternoon broke up Friday morning.

''Alton, Wolfeboro and the Weirs were all open Thursday but there was still ice in Meredith Bay, Center Harbor and around Bear Island,'' said Emerson.

He said that it was the wind, not the 85 degree temperatures that the area had experienced on Wednesday and Thursday, that finally broke up the ice.

''You could see that it breaking up in the waves caused by the wind,'' said Emerson, who added that although Ice-Out has been officially declared there is still ice in some of the northeast-facing coves on the lake.

The March 23 date breaks the previous record set just two years ago, when Ice-Out was declared on March 24 at 2 p.m. Last year, it was Tuesday, April 19, at 8:20 am.

The only others time the ice went out in March were in 1921 when it went out on March 28 and in 1946, when ice-out was declared on March 30.

The latest Ice-Out took place on May 12, 1888, the year that observers started keeping records.

Ice-Out is officially declared when the lake ice has melted enough to allow the M/S Mount Washington cruise ship to reach all its ports of call on the lake; Alton Bay, Center Harbor, Weirs Beach, Meredith and Wolfeboro.

For many, the declaration of Ice-Out marks the traditional start of the spring season, and it officially allows many island property owners to regain water access to their cottages.