number of days w/ safe ice

[Betty4]

I'm doing a research paper on "global warmings" affect on Michigan recreation. I know last year I didn't get to go ice fishing much because we didn't have ice for long. I was wondering if anybody had knows where I can find historical and last years number of days with safe ice. I know its a stretch to compare the two, but it will help as an example. Thanks!

[initforfun]

"safe" ice is a matter of opinion and location. I'd be glad to help if you could break it down a little more for me. Thanks. I don't go out until 4" of ice but i'm in S.E. MI north had more "safe" ice for longer

:)

[ih772]

Last year I fished Houghton Lake from the second week of December until March 17th.

[Betty4]

it doesn't matter where as long as i can compare last year to a few years before that. I also consider 4 inches to be safe ice. Probably info from southern mi would give more obvious results. I'm from south central mi so last year was horrible for ice fishing for me too. Thank you so much!

[ih772]

This link (http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/region_map.html) shows the amount of ice covering the Great Lakes during the winter. Maybe they have image archives that you could access.

You're right about last years ice season being rather short for Southern Michigan. Hopefully it will be different this year.

[initforfun]

I can only give you what I exp. not a total number of days do you still think it'll help? I got out before Christmas about 4 times. And after none in S.E. I headed north. I keep a journal (sounds nerdy I know) for weather conditions,air temp, ice conditions and fish caught with tackle used. I can dig up if you think it'll help.:Welcome: to the site

[Betty4]

that info would be helpful, but please don't feel the need to dig the journal out.

[HuRon]

Here's the best I could find. Posted it last winter. Thought it was interesting to compare the trends & patterns over the years. Hope it helps.

http://www.mlswa.org/GLQO-321/FreezeThaw.html

http://www.mlswa.org/GLQO-321/

[bigsid]

Last year was an obvious dud, but for the '04-'05 season, I was on Reeds Lake in GR on 12-21 and we had good ice straight through into the beginning of April. On 3-22, (my last time out that year) I was cutting through over 24" of ice! One of the other members told me he was out on 4-1 and there was still 10". What a difference a year made.

Hope this helps...Sid

[Robert Hoover]

i think peoples recreations are effected differently acording to where they live.For example i live a mile away from lsc last year was the earliest i can ever rember being on the ice,the warm wether moved in but i still ice fished every day till early march.The only difference was that i had to go 1/2 hour outta my way to do it.their for my recreation was ubstucted but not effected!but if for someone who lives out in that area and doesnt venture far from home could say they had a great year with even being on the ice early.just thought id throw a monkey wrench in their!good luck with youre study

[initforfun]

HuRon I think that'll be all she needs. Good stuff.:D

[Betty4]

Thank you everybody...you've been a big help :)

[jeremy L]

it really is going to be hard to do a comparison using global warming and ice cover. Some people may say its easy, there is less ice each year, it means global warming is real, blah blah blah. It has much more to do then that.

If the weather patterns are right, such as a strong El Nino, and the primary storm track is west of michigan, then that winter will tend to be warm and will also tend to be a bad year ice wise. There is also the chance where you have a cold cold winter, example 2000, but little ice coverage because of heavy snows early in the season. You have the snow cover preventing good, quick ice formation and this leads to another bad ice year even with cold temps.

I'm not even going to go into global warming itself, but i will say this: If climatologists can deteremine the earth is warming solely on about 100-200 years of good data, then more power to them. However, i would like to see a much larger data sample to confirm that we, humans, are in fact, the ONLY cause of global warming.

[GonzoFisherman]

while it may be true betty that 100-200 yrs of data isn't the ideal sample size to make these determinations it is all we have. that said, i would say that only a real idiot would discount the science that says there is human caused global warming occuring and recomend doing nothing while we may be continuing to damage the earth.

[ih772]

it really is going to be hard to do a comparison using global warming and ice cover. Some people may say its easy, there is less ice each year, it means global warming is real, blah blah blah. It has much more to do then that.

If the weather patterns are right, such as a strong El Nino, and the primary storm track is west of michigan, then that winter will tend to be warm and will also tend to be a bad year ice wise. There is also the chance where you have a cold cold winter, example 2000, but little ice coverage because of heavy snows early in the season. You have the snow cover preventing good, quick ice formation and this leads to another bad ice year even with cold temps.

I'm not even going to go into global warming itself, but i will say this: If climatologists can deteremine the earth is warming solely on about 100-200 years of good data, then more power to them. However, i would like to see a much larger data sample to confirm that we, humans, are in fact, the ONLY cause of global warming.

FWIW, I believe the young lady was looking to acquire data for her project and not opinions of how she should do it. :)

[HOangler]

global warming is a farse. to think that we can change the coarse of what mother earth does naturally is crazy. if we are as smart as we think we are, don't you think we could figure out the simpler things. the earth may be warming but there ain't ---- we can do about it. the earth was here millions of years prior to us, and will be here millions after. she will eventually shake us off like a bad case of the fleas if we don't kill oursevles off first. sorry for the negativity, but there are much more important issues our schools should be teaching our youth.

[ifish4eyes]

Betty4, if global warming is effecting winter recreation, you may also consider limitation of the other seasons. You may be able to link rain fall, to hot summers, sun intensity etc.:yikes:

[thedude]

i ice fished in NW indiana (Morocco, IN) on Dec 24th on 4" of ice last year. Then there was a warm up and it wasn't til late jan til we got safe ice just north of GR.