Ice in, ice out – the freezing and thawing of our lake 

This year, Lake Mitchell was 90% ice free on March 24th. That's earlier than normal, but nowhere near a record. Looking over data collected since 1934, the earliest ice out was March 9 in 2000. Over the last 20 years the other early dates were  March 17th in 2012 and 2016. The latest ice out was April 28, 1972. 

Here's some data on the average ice out through the decades:

 1930s – April 11

1940s – April 13

1950s – April 14

1960s – April 11

1970s – April 13

1980s – April 7

1990s – April 6

2000s – April 4 

2010s -  April 3 

When it comes to freezing, many years the Lake will freeze completely over around Thanksgiving.  Since 1984 the earliest dates were November 12th in 1995, November 19th in 1992, November 19 in 2014, and November 18th in 2018. 

Late freezes included December 30th and 31st  in1984 and 1986 and 2015. In 1995 it didn't freeze until January 2nd.