Ice Out confirmed by Jack the dog *AND* satellite imagery.
First of all, y’all, check out this amazing time-lapse video of the ice melting off the big lake (Chocorua Lake, as opposed to Little Lake on the south side of the Narrows Bridge) MOSTLY over the course of a single day, courtesy of Mike McCormack at IP Timelapse. But that’s not the whole story because…
…a large piece of ice was still stuck to the shoreline near the live cam camera, not visible on the time-lapse, all through Thursday night and into Friday evening. Using the definition we use for "ice out", which is no ice remaining on the big lake, Friday is official ice out, which is in accord with…
Jack the dog, official arbiter of Ice Out. | Courtney O’Connor
…our Ice Out contest judge, Jack the dog, seen above resting from his strenuous labors, who said, “Woof, ice out is Friday, April 10.”
CLC volunteer and all-around data genius Aaron Perry confirmed April 10 as the date from on high:
It definitely looks like 4/10 was the official ice-out for the Lake.
Examining high-resolution, low-latency Sentinel satellite imagery from 4/8 and 4/11, you can see that rapid ice degradation occurred during that period.
NOTE: In the first photo below, the ice is denoted by the bright cyan colors on the Lake, then poof, it has all melted the next time the satellite flew over the area on 4/11!
April 8
April 11
Looking at local weather stations, afternoon temperatures in the area were in the low 60s on 4/10. Factors like the warm temperatures, combined with a high early-April sun angle (53° above the horizon), were enough to effectively melt the remaining ice on the lake.
No one chose April 10, so as per tradition, the prize will go to the closest guess, April 12. 4/12, we’ll be in touch with you! Thank you to Jack and his people, to Mike for the time-lapse video, and to Aaron for the satellite imagery and analysis.
Banner image: Jack investigates. | Courtney O’Connor