Lake Ice Dangerous To Homes?

I still have my boss in town so this will be a short blog. But I did run across a few things I wanted to share with you.

NOAA released an article stating that winter temperatures for the U.S. were near normal this year. They were above normal in February.

Winter being the climatological winter (Dec-Feb) and not the calendar winter.

Click here for the article.

Also, a recent forecast by the Climate Prediction Center is calling for La Nina to weaken as we head into the spring.

Click here for the latest.

And here is something pretty interesting to see and read...lake ice is threatening some homes in Michigan.

Click here for the story.

I actually witnessed a lake "ice out" in Minnesota when I lived there. It was a huge lake north of the Twin Cities, called Lake Mille Lacs. Click here for more about the lake.

It was in March or maybe even early April -- in fact, I think it was near the middle of April.

Anyhow, I was out and about seeing the state and stopped into the local casino to try my luck and take a break from driving.

A cold front was moving in and the winds picked up really strong from the south out ahead of it.

You could hear this huge creaking sound, almost like a rocking chair, and it was the lake ice starting to break apart.

Suddenly, somewhere out in the lake, the ice broke apart and it started pushing on shore.

I grabbed my video camera and started taping.

Within minutes, the ice was piling up -- it pushed on shore, the pile growing from below.

It made a lot of clinking noises, and was in all shapes and sizes.

Before too long, the ice was piled so high it looked like a small mountain, and it closed a 2-lane road that went around the shoreline.

One of the most amazing things I think I have ever witnessed when it comes to Mother Nature.

After about an hour or so, the winds died down, and the process stopped. The shoreline was lined with a HUGE line of jagged ice piles -- almost looked like a mountain chain.

And where just a few hours before it was a huge mass of ice -- now it was a large area of open water.

The entire lake didn't ice out, just this particular section -- but I tell you, it was something else.

If I can ever find that tape I will call my techy friends and see if I can get it loaded onto my computer.

The "mountain chain" of ice looked much like picture #1 in the slideshow linked above, talking about the ice in Michigan.

If any of you have witnessed something like this, I'd love to hear about it and so would our fellow blog readers.