Global Warming Playing Havoc With Frozen Lakes In Minnesota Well Into Spring

The StarTribune is reporting:

Visitors aren’t booking cruises, buying boats or reserving boat slips at past years’ rates, unable to think spring in the wintry weather. Events like this weekend’s Lake Minnetonka Crappie Contest in Excelsior were postponed. And experts predict that if the snow and cold continue, the ice-out won’t take place until the first week of May — something that hasn’t happened in nearly half a century.

“It’s driving people crazy,” said Bob Turgeon, a Lake Minnetonka fishing guide whose Facebook feeds are full of fishermen’s posts bemoaning boats holed up in garages or warehouses instead of out on the water in search of panfish. “It’s been a long winter; you want to get out.”

This day last year, Minnetonka, the state’s ninth-largest lake, had been ice-free for a month, driving up boating traffic to the highest levels in recent years. But now, like many lakes across Minnesota, it’s still covered with 18 inches of ice, passing the average April 15 ice-out date and creeping up on the May 11 fishing opener.

“We’re a land of extremes,” said Pete Boulay, a state climatologist. “Maybe it’s payback for last year.”

Latest ice-out was May 8.

Let's see what it is this year. I wonder if the  President or Algore will visit?