Ice Watch April 16 2019
Will you look at that: it’s snowing in Toronto, but the French River is opening up with the Spring rush. Fast ice is retreating towards the shoreline, but the Bustards and the Minks remain solidly encased. Winter’s doing its best to hang on this season.
Ice Watch March 26 2019
Excellent progress in the last couple of weeks! Surface ice has degraded significantly, and fast ice has retreated behind the outlier islands like Lonely in the northwest and Doubletop in the southeast. Mayhaps the portents of doom and gloom were too premature this year?
Ice Watch March 10 2019
Welcome to the Georgian Bay Ice Watch for Spring of 2019! We begin the festivities looking…like the middle of February in 2015. Sigh. The Bay is covered in ice almost clear across, with heavy fast ice gripping the entire north channel and eastern coastlines right down through Cognashene. Temperatures are forecast to start dipping above […]
Ice Watch April 23 2018
The last Ice Watch for the next couple of days as April rains (and clouds) move in. Minimal changes along the north shore, but it looks like Byng Inlet and the area around Pointe au Baril are starting to soften. The greatest gains appear to be in the Massasauga Provincial Park, but a large ice […]
Ice Watch April 20 2018
The Bustards are truly islands again. Open water is appearing in the Shawanaga inlet, and Parry Sound is thinning rapidly. Victoria Harbour is shedding ice, and Sans Souci is opening up. Will next week be The Week? Stay tuned! And if you’re up in arms about how long the season is taking to start, fret […]
Ice Watch April 10 2018
A good satellite pass. Incremental improvements: the Bustards are almost islands again, Parry Sound is seeing more open water gains, and northeast Manitoulin is losing large areas of ice daily. Twelve Mile Bay is still socked in at the mouth, but fibreglass hulls are starting to go into the water at some marinas. Parry Sound […]
Ice Watch April 5 2018
The season is off to a very slow start. Temperatures continue to stay cold, with lows below zero forecast for the next two weeks. April 7 will see a low of -10°C in Parry Sound. Still, there have been improvements in the offshore ice conditions. Both the north and eastern shorelines have marked a significant retreat, […]
Ice Watch March 25 2018
Interior waterways are opening up around the Twelve Mile Bay area, and parts of Parry Sound are starting to free up. Temperatures are forecast to finally be warm for a few days straight (8°C on Wednesday!), so our guess is that people in Sans Souci will win the prize this year, in the first or […]
Ice Watch March 23 2018
What a difference a couple of weeks makes. Northerly winds have compacted the surface ice against southern shorelines, and a large amount of the fast ice has disappeared. Still, one could probably walk out to the Bustard Islands.
Ice Watch March 4 2018
Welcome to the Georgian Bay Ice Watch for 2018. The site was hacked so we’ve lost some historical data for 2016 and 2017, but we begin this Watch with very seasonal conditions. The eastern and northern shores are socked in with heavy ice, and a fair amount of ice is drifting around the surface as […]
Ice Watch April 8, 2016
Old Man Winter retreats but slowly. After the unwinter of 2015/26, Spring is taking her sweet time as Georgian Bay continues to suffer lows below seasonal averages. Still, the Bay proper is completely clear of ice, and waterways are rapidly clearing out. Satellites show fast ice remaining primarily in the extreme north. Compared to April 11 2015, we’re far […]
Ice Watch March 19 2016
We begin the Georgian Bay Ice Watch this year close to the Spring equinox, after the Unwinter of 2015-16. Where the last two years saw the Bay freeze over completely, this season saw even inland ice seem sketchy. Southern Ontario snowmobile trail maps were mostly a sea of red, with the vast majority of trails remaining […]
Ice Watch April 24 2015
The jig is up: Much of the Georgian Bay surface ice is disappearing, and the lower half of the Bay looks to be entirely ice free. Hamer Bay Marine already has a boat in the water, and we expect to jump out of Snug Harbour next weekend. Compare this to last year, and you can […]
Ice Watch April 19 2015
Much of the western Bay, and the very southern portion, are primarily ice free. Fast ice still chokes the north and eastern shorelines. We continue to be about ten days ahead of last year. New to the Icewatch are corresponding ice charts from the Canadian Ice Service, shown here for all of the eastern great […]
Ice Watch April 11 2015
Wonderful progress in the last few days, especially when compared with the same time last year. Owen Sound has cleared out, fast ice continues to retreat all around, and the main ice pack is thinning rapidly. Forecasts of above-zero weather for the Parry Sound area seem to be keeping us right on track to have […]
Ice Watch March 31 2015
Finally a direct comparison between conditions of March 31 in both 2014 and 2015. There’s substantially less ice cover than last year, and fast ice along the shoreline is already in retreat. Click here to view March 31, 2014. Temperatures in the Bay area are trending upwards, with lows above zero forecast by mid-April for […]
Ice Watch March 23, 2015
A glance at the latest satellite imagery shows Georgian Bay to be roughly a week ahead of 2014 in terms of ice-out, possibly more. The fast ice is already receding, and the main ice pack appears to be thinning despite continued cold nightime temperatures in the region. Another week will tell, but compare to this […]
Ice Watch February 19 2015
Dateline February 2015, and a cold snap has finally frozen Georgian Bay clear across. Fast ice extends out to the Westerlies and the Limestone Islands. Spring breakup 2015 could repeat 2014, when ice was still evident in May. Source: NOAA MODIS True Colour 250m
Ice Watch May 6 2014
Finally, winter has lost the battle. Most of Georgian Bay is ice free, and temperatures (and forecast rain) over the next few days will take care of the rest. Parry Sound is completely ice free, as is Snug Harbour. There are thinning ice fields offshore with the potential to block access to areas if they […]
Ice Watch May 4, 2014
A tantalizing image of Georgian Bay, with heavy cloud cover. The major bulk of surface ice appears to have finally, mostly, dissipated. A string of ice looks to be hugging the offshore area of Parry Sound, but as of May 4 much of the Bay appears to be clear of ice. Take that with a […]
Ice Watch April 28 2014
Some excellent progress in the last few days. The Port Severn environs continue to clear out, and the shoreline south of Byng Inlet just lost half of its ice pack. By the end of the week, however, winds will shift again and begin to move the surface ice back towards the eastern shoreline. Hopefully by […]
Ice Watch April 24 2014
What a difference even a day makes. A large mass over 10Km long has broken up on the northeast corner of Manitoulin Island, and open water is appearing around Port Severn and Beausoleil Island. Parry Sound offshore is down to about 6Km of ice, we’re still placing our bets on the weekend of the 3rd, […]
Ice Watch April 23 2014
Georgian Bay ice is thinning rapidly, decreasing in density daily. Ice on the north and eastern shorelines has retreated dramatically, and reports out of Twelve Mile, Go Home, and Kempenfelt Bays all point to imminent ice out, but we’re not quite there yet. The Heart of Stone project is hoping to be back in the […]
Ice Watch April 19 2014
Georgian Bay’s main ice pack has lost a lot of volume, growing thinner by the day, while the north and eastern shores continue to remain completely socked in. Source: NOAA MODIS True Colour 250m