The challenges, the worlds first and only solution,
and some take-home messages
Ice hazards - the challenges of lake ice travel
An inviting escape that demands respect
Millions of anglers’ travel on floating lake ice each winter. Many can not identify the hazards that threaten survival, injury, and loss or damage to personal property. Your success on the ice depends on the choices you make. After all you walk and drive on it.
Fish. Ride. Thrive!
The rest of this site provides the detail that shows Ice Time™ is a trustworthy guide that accompanies and extends your on ice safety practices.
Modern Anglers know the Stakes
Are you tired of worrying about the ice underneath you? As the ice changes so does the types and locations of hazards. Ignoring these risks can have a long-lasting affect on lives, create uncertainty and anxiety, or at a minimum waste your time, cost you money, and result in a failed outing. The need to identify hazards demands action from all of us. This is especially true in our warming climate.
Ice Time™ improves your situational awareness. Ice Time™ lets you see far beyond the shore. You will see the ice cover of entire lakes and for all the lakes in your area. You monitor the ice, plan your trip, decide on an access point, travel routes, and stay in touch with local ice-smart anglers just like you. It’s time for you to join the rapidly growing community of modern anglers that can dramatically reduce the risks of lake ice travel.
Fish. Ride. Thrive!
How does it work?
Satellite radar imaging
Successful ice travel includes understanding the types of ice, monitoring the changes in the ice, and the hazards that form. Ice Time™ does this for you by displaying current high resolution satellite radar images published to you in near real-time, usually within a day. Radar satellites “see” at night and through clouds. In the winter radar also sees through the snow to the ice. These all-weather satellites provide the images we need to monitor lake ice frequently and reliably.
Radar satellites emit energy so image data can be collected through clouds, at night, through snow.
What do Ice Time™ maps look like?
Your radar maps will show changes in the ice over time. The images from each ice period are displayed differently in Ice Time™ so they are easy to understand. Ice Time™ uses false colors because radar images do not need or use sunlight to form images. Let’s start with new ice and winter ice as examples. See the descriptions below each image to interpret the colors.
New ice mapping. Southern basin of Lake Winnipeg during freeze up showing fragmented ice sheets drifting north exposing open water in the south. Forests are yellow, agricultural fields are light blue. Mapping icons are not displayed at this scale.
Winter ice mapping. Southern basin of Lake Winnipeg. Rubble (rough) ice is mapped in red, pressure ridges are yellow, and smooth ice is blue. The smoothest ice formed under low wind, and appears dark blue. Land is grey. Remember, you are seeing through the snow cover! Mapping icons are not displayed at this scale.
Mapping Icons
Key observations described in the ice reports are also marked by us on the radar maps, using easy to understand icons. The icon colors shown here are reserved for the Ice Time™ scientific staff, so you know it comes from us. Users map features using blue icons.
When you zoom in the hazard and incident icons appear.
Winter mapping often shows smooth ice (blue), rubble ice (rough ice shown as red), and pressure ridges (yellow lines). Land is grey. Mapping icon are shown at select sites to get your oriented. Our research using satellites and drones on rough ice revealed we can map ridges or rough ice starting at 10cm (4”). In this image most of the rubble ice is less than 1 m (3.2‘) but can be as high as 3 m (10‘).
Fish. Ride. Thrive!
Below, two Ice Reports are shown using the demo data available in Ice Time from 2019. Each Ice Report contains a thumbnail image, and a description that may reference numbers. Each of these numbers is symbolized on the map so the Ice Report content is easy to find on the map. Each Ice Report has a View Map link, bottom right.
After View Map is clicked, your map opens and the features described in the report are indicated with symbols, which in this case, are numbers listed in the Ice Report. This map from 2019-12-08 showing the Lake of the Woods satellite footprint shows two stages of ice growth. Most recently, new black ice formed in the north and east which looks fractured. The boundary between the first and second stage of ice growth is shown at (2). If you want to see the Ice Report while looking at the map, just click on the “i” button icon found on the right.
Fish. Ride. Thrive!
Time Series
Animate your ice cover. See the lake ice changes for yourself! Watch the ice sheets form in stages, move, and create rubble ice. See ridges uplift all winter. See melt onset begin. Watch break up change to open water. Ice Time is the first and only tool that can confirm that the ice has stopped moving.
Time series for Lake of the Woods. Starts November 8, 2020 and completes on January 31, 2021. Its starts with open water and a south-west wind, slush ice forms in the west of the third image. An open water lead forms along the west coast in the fourth image. Thereafter ice repeatedly forms, fractures, and drifts east in Big Traverse Bay. We look at little to the north in the last two frames and clearly see ice roads! Remember, clouds never obscure your view with radar data. In winter you are seeing through snow to the ice!
Fish. Ride. Thrive!
Get Up and Running with Ice Time™
License and install Ice Time™ with confidence knowing a money back guarantee is in place.
Get App
Buy Now to select your geographic service regions, license and enjoy the Ice Time™ on your desktop, tablet, and phone. Get started now. See demo data from a previous year for free.
Get Tech
Receive high resolution ice maps and ice reports at home that describe the lake ice. Zoom in to your areas of interest. See what other people are posting about changes in the ice. Join our webinars.
Get Local
Combine the power of Ice Time™ with your personal on ice due diligence techniques to plan and minimize risk where you are, or the spots you plan to move to. Watch for key information posted by users.
The smart user stays on top of the changes by using Ice Time™ at home using your desktop internet browser as a monitoring and planning tool to maximize your fishing time by choosing your destination, the access point and route. Use your phone or tablet while on the ice to see your position, your route, the hazards, and ice information posted by locals and you!
Yup. You can map your spots and keep them private too!
You have arrived!
Now you know that Ice Time™ offers near real-time satellite images, is easy to use, the image symbols are simple to understand, and you are connected to us and other local ice-smart people. You have what you need to be an informed and confident modern ice angler at home and away! Ice Time™ is your new tool that helps you monitor the ice so you can stay focused on fishing.
New Ice Time™ users ascend into a community of informed modern anglers supported by cutting-edge science and technology. Ice Time™ users are knowledgeable, respectful, and helpful. We maximize our fishing time by planning in advance, staying in touch with ice information using maps and the Ice Time™ community, and spend our time on the ice more safely than ever. Why you ask? Because we are a tribe that loves lake ice and aim to have worry-free fun on it!
It’s time for you to join us.
Fish. Ride. Thrive!
Ice Time™ is licensed for personal use. If you are a guide, social media influencer, represent an association, community, business, or academic institution you are an Ice Time™ Power user. If you are Police, Fire, a First Responder, or government you are an Ice Time™ Pro user. Pro or Power users, please contact us for more information.
A special thanks to our valued friends, partners, and supporters who helped us get here!
Thrive Visuals, Kenora, Ontario
Ontario Provincial Police, Central Region, Ontario.
Edward Monroe, Monroe Photography, Ashland, WI
North Forge Technology Exchange
Manitoba Innovation Growth Program
