The last remnants of winter ice cleared out of Deep Bay in a record breaking date of March 20th.
The only other March date I have is March 25, 2012. The average is April 20 and the latest May 4, 2018.
For those of us who like winter, this one never came. The first snow was October 30th but melted a few days later. On November 19th another snowfall with more on the 26 and 27. But any trace of it was gone by December. Fortunately Mother Nature took pity on us and a few days before Christmas gave us 1/2 an inch for Santa's sled, which quickly melted shortly after.
Temperatures kept bouncing plus and minus all winter so whatever fell was slowly melting until the next snowfall and the most measured accumulation in the fields we had was January 21st at 13 inches. It was short lived.
The coldest temperature was February 19th at a mere minus 24 celsius. It too was short lived. Last year, February 3rd, our record low, was minus 33 celsius.
Total snowfall from November to February 18th was only 54.5 inches, compared to last year 72 inches.
Lake Ice:
Although the bays started to freeze in early January the main lake didn't freeze over until January 20th. (Jan 8th last year) By February, Deep Bay was 7 inches thick, 8 inches between Long Island and North Morris Island.
By the end of the month Deep Bay had 9 inches and I took a scary snowmobile ride out midway to Sugar Island in the deepest part of the lake and measured 7 inches. (13 inches mid lake last year)
Hopefully our 2024 summer will be better than the winter.
