Quote:
Originally Posted by Kim473
So your all saying, ice will be off in 4 weeks when it took about 16 weeks to get over 3 feet thick. I don't think so. Most years the ice around the shore lines are meltinting by now and i'm starting to work on my grass and yard by now. Not for a couple weeks yet till I can do the grass. The garden is still frozen solid still. Won't be tilling it for a few weeks if I'm lucky. Still got a foot of snow in the back yard in some places.
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Ice breaks up much faster then it forms. For ice to form the cold air above has to suck the energy through the already formed ice to cool the water below which then freezes to thicken the ice. The existing ice and any snow on top insulates and slows down this process. Radiation heat also slows down this process by heating the top of the ice even if the weather is cold(which is why snow and ice melt on a sunny day even if it is below freezing).
When melting the ice melts from both the warm air above and the warm water below. Radiation heat has a significant effect(already have nice long days) and wind, rain and runoff all speed up the process as well. The ice rots through much of its thickness to the point where you can't even walk on 12 inches of ice anymore then it disappears within days. Even with our lower temperatures I would wager our ice has already been melting for a bit now(from the water below).
In 2016 9 days is all it took for one of our smaller lakes to go from having open water around the edges and the odd person still out on the ice to being mostly ice free.