'Cruelest Month' is almost over

Scene out our window in Nolalu today

There is nothing more depressing than a blizzard in the spring. It started this morning and the snow is expected to continue for the next few days although the bulk of it should come down today. Here in Nolalu we are expecting 5-15 cms (2-6 inches). Rats!
I knew it had to happen because the robins showed up about a week ago and robins are always snowed upon. Talk about a bittersweet moment: you see the first robin and you say "Yay! Spring is here!" and then you think, "Oh, no! It is going to snow some more."
The truth however is we have been blessed by beautiful spring weather. The snow had almost totally disappeared and the ground was drying up nicely. The melt occurred gradually enough that there was no flooding. We are so much more fortunate than our friends in Eastern Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick where record floods are all occuring.
There are only three weeks to go before the start of fishing season! Will there be open water? It looks that way. Although the weather has cooled off from what it was the last two weeks, everything is still melting. Red Lake missed this snowfall and that's a plus. Such an event always sets things back until the snow is melted.
I'm sticking with my 2019 ice-out or breakup forecast for Red Lake of May 12.  Come on sunshine! I want to have a fish fry!

Lovely weather could speed-up ice-out

Warm, sunny days and above-freezing temperatures at night the last couple of weeks should put the 2019 ice-out on Red Lake, Ontario back nearer the average date of May 8. Colder-than-normal conditions the first two weeks of April had me speculating in the last posting that the breakup would come a week later -- May 15. Maybe I'll split the difference now and pick May 12.
Incidentally, my predictions are for when a boat can travel on Howey Bay, the bay right in front of town. It is usually the last place to melt.
Walleye season opens May 18. It is always the third Saturday in May.

'Where the heck have I been?'

I won't go into detail here but I've experienced an interruption this spring that has kept me from blogging.
If all goes well I hope to be driving nails on the new cabin all summer and won't have access to the Internet. So it could be next fall before my blog schedule returns to normal.
Since I know it is of interest to a great many people, let me just report that spring breakup of area lakes, including Red Lake, is very unlikely to be early and could be late. Average ice-out for Red Lake is May 8.
It was a cold winter but we have learned over the years that winter ice and snow depth don't make much difference on breakup times. What matters the most is the weather in April. To date the temperatures in April have been below normal. It looks like the forecast for the next couple of weeks is for warming but still not where it should be.
On the good side there haven't been many spring snowfalls that set everything back.