Will Today be the Day? May Could Bring Official Ice Out on Lake Minnetonka

May's arrival could bring with it the official declaration of ice out on Lake Minnetonka.

Most residents around the lake agree that ice was between 80 and 90 percent out as of late Tuesday afternoon, and the following reports came in via Lake Minnetonka's Facebook page, Twitter and e-mails to the editor:

• Cindy Larson: After driving home from work and seeing what's left I want mine to be May 1 (referring to ice out declaration date).
• Lori Anderson: Ice is out on our bay #LakeMinnetonka. The sun's reflection on the water is a sure sign of summer #iceout #signsofsummer
• Thomas Evenstad: Cook's and Spring Park Bay are open. pic.twitter.com/iAzHa4CSOa
• Patrick Fitzgerald: We looked at all the four bridges in center of Lake Minnetonka and none prevent a launch and circumnavigation around the Bays. April 30th was my guess too.
• Dan McGlynn: Ice out on Maxwell Bay today! Summer is here! #lakeminnetonka
• Marge Stein: Still planning on winning my bet of an official lake Minnetonka ice out on May 1st pic.twitter.com/VRym98orFz

Ice out on Lake Minnetonka will come a full six weeks later than last year and could be one of the latest dates in history.

Click here to see a historical table of official ice out dates, as provided by the Freshwater Society.

The Freshwater Society has been the official caller of Lake Minnetonka ice out for more than 50 years. Ice out on Lake Minnetonka is a sign of spring that scientists and lakeshore residents have been tracking and recording since at least 1855. Freshwater Society founder Dick Gray, who catalogued the early records and has made his own records since 1968, described the standard for determining ice-out in a 2003 column: “when it is possible to travel by small boat from any one shore to any other shore through any passage on the lake.”

Prior to that, Gray wrote, ice-out sometimes was determined by when a car placed on the ice fell through or when a boat could travel from Excelsior to Wayzata.

Related posts:

• 'Ice Breakers' Hasten Winter's Retreat on Lake Minnetonka
• Re-Writing History? Climatologists Question Lake Minnetonka's 1856 Ice Out Accuracy

Ice-out dates for 22 of the years since 1855 are unknown. Several years ago, Pete Boulay of the Minnesota State Climatology Office found old Smithsonian Weather Observer records that contained ice-out information for two years—1863 and 1873—had had long been missing from the official log.

Last year's call came at 9:12 a.m. on Wednesday, March 21.