You might not want to wait to get your ice shack off the lake

By Julie Harris, Bangor Daily News Staff

Twenty-four hours makes a huge difference between safe ice and taking a cold swim this year.

That’s why you may want to get your ice shack off the lake or pond it’s on before the predicted rain and warm temperatures this week turn it into a salvage operation.

Maine is experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures and a lack of snow, after being deluged in December with multiple inches of rain. Some lakes and ponds took a long time to freeze over. Some never did. Now the ones that did are thawing.

Social media pages on fishing and snowmobiling are exploding with discussions on safe ways to get on and off popular lakes and ponds, where there is still good and solid ice, if you can get to it. Parts of these lakes and ponds have unsafe areas.

Anglers warn about pressure ridges, open water, drastic ice changes within just a few hours —  including variations in thickness or breaking up within hours — near misses and snowmobiles and ATVs cracking what should have been frozen surfaces.

Several people have had close calls. Others broke through the ice but got out of the water. And one man died this season.

One guide service owner said he probably would remove his ice shacks from West Grand Lake after this weekend’s warmup, and expected the season would end shortly after.

Others likely will follow suit.

The National Weather Service at Caribou said the snow pack melted some on Tuesday with temperatures in the 40s, and the central highland and Down East areas could expect up to 2 ½ inches of rain Wednesday. 

Temperatures Wednesday could reach the low 50s, breaking record highs in Caribou, Houlton, Millinocket and Bangor, the weather service said. 

Rain is expected to switch to snow showers Thursday morning, the weather service said.