Slush ice drifting west to the offshore in open water, southwest of the Bay of Quinte.

December 12, 2019. Open water leads and cracks are visible. Rubble ice is forming where ice sheets collide which appears as bright lines.

Winter roads visible north of Nipissing.

December 14, 2020. The west basin is ice covered with new black ice. Large and fragmented ice sheets have broken off the east shore and drift west in open water.

December 21, 2017. The early shorefast ice cover breaks up leaving large areas of open water and ice sheet fragments. Most of the remaining continuous ice cover is shorefast. A new open water lead divides the shorefast ice in the south-east corner of the bay.

February 27, 2021. After melt onset, the ice in the bay is bounded by open water to the north-east and small area at the outflow of the diversion channel of the Saginaw River in the south.

February 25, 2021. Apostle Islands formed ice. The offshore is unconsolidated ice and open water. South shore to the west has shelf ice with large open leads. To the east, the shorezone accumulated unconsolidated ice.

December 27, 2020. Ice cover fills the bay north of Ashland, WI. Abundant slush and pancake ice, often called white ice when frozen, accumulated on the edge of the first shore fast ice along the south shore. This appears appears as a bright and smooth band in this image.

December 20, 2021. The initial black ice cover breaks up under a south wind and moves north, exposing open water in the south. Unconsolidated ice, mainly slush and pancake ice, blows north and accumulates at the boundary between ice and open water. This bright white ice boundary looks smooth. Further north, rough ice emerges as the ice sheets move and collide. The rough ice boundaries appear erratic.

December 26, 2020. Last stage of new ice. Open water is visible as a dark area resembling an inverted “heart-shape” in the north-east. White ice, mainly slush and pancake ice which appears bright and smooth here, accumulated earlier in the freeze upon along the offshore edges of shorefast ice in the north and south, as well as in St. Albans Bay and Shah-bush-kung Bay. Rubble ice and ridges appear as bright but erratic lines.

January 19, 2021. Shorefast black ice forms along east shore from Maple Beach to Sandy Point Beach in the north, and in the southern end of Cook’s Bay. Unconsolidated ice, mainly slush and pancake ice, can be seen forming white ice accumulations downwind along these areas of shorefast ice.

February 12, 2021. Winter ice showing stages of ice set up earlier in the season and a new open water lead. Initially, numerous lenses of white ice accumulated adjacent to shorefast ice, most notably along the east shore. Just before this image, a 1 km (3/4 Mi) open water lead opened up from Georgina Island to Eight Mile Point on the west shore. While drifting north, this massive and mobile offshore ice sheet formed new rubble ice where it collided with shorefast ice. This is visible near the north shore as a bright but thin curve that spans the north end of the lake.

The onset of widespread break-up. Many cracks and leads have formed, the largest being 1 km (3/4 Mi) wide.

December 14, 2020. Three stages of ice up are shown using numbers and icons for open water. Smaller inland lakes (1) froze up first, then most of Rainy Lake formed new black ice (2), leaving the large offshore basins to freeze last, after this image was captured. Knowing the location of the boundary between stage 1 and 2 ice is important. The ice will be more thin on the younger ice side and the change in thickness will be abrupt. Your spud bar is helpful each time you are about to enter an ice stage, not just at shore.

Three stages of freeze up visible on November 20, 2020. Small lakes froze first. Next, most of Island Lake formed new black ice, leaving many open water areas over a wide range in size that froze after this image was taken. Having maps like this on a desktop computer can save the lives of snowmobilers before they leave the comfort of home.

January 7, 2021. Sturgeon Bay, located on Georgian Bay, showing an open water hole and the ice boundary next to the open water of Georgian Bay. Two snowmobile incidents occurred just after this image was taken. Three 3 people perished after driving into open water in mid-day (at the sites indicated by red circles).