Know When It's Safe to be on the Ice
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When I was a kid (a million years ago), we lived in Ohio. A neighbor owned some land with a small lake. The rule was we were not allowed to skate on it until they told us it was okay. Their rule of thumb was to shoot the ice with a .22. If the ice held, we got to skate.
Ha, Ha, I see I wrote a very similar comment (but more detailed) almost three years ago. Forgive a bad memory now, it is a good remembrance.
Concerning the thickness of ice the best rule of thumb and advice is: "when in doubt don't". This could apply to other thing in life as well.
I was wondering the same about Ice thickness; I found an article stating the middle the pond is the last to freeze because sunlight focuses;
Is Ice Thicker in the Middle of a Lake? Surprising Facts You Never …
https://fishriverlodge.com/is-ice-thicker-in-the-middle-of-a-lake
When I was a young kid, our family lived in Cincinnati, OH for a few years. Across the street and about 100 yards in, was a small lake. The people who owned the lake were generous and mindful. When the ice formed, they'd shoot a .22 into it and if the ice held to their satisfaction, we were allowed to ice-skate and sled across it. As long as we lived there, there was never an accident or incident. Spent many happy hours on the ice on that lake!
When I lived in Alton NH a member of the Alton Bay Flying Club and had my own Cessna 172, in February President's weekend we plowed a runway on the ice and had fly-ins. The only FAA sanctioned ice runway in the US at that time. Planes came from all over to experience it including twin engines and as far way as VA & MI.. The stores ran out of goodies. The gazebo in the middle of Alton Bay was the command center. I parked many airplanes. There were a couple of skidding accidents were the pilot met with a snow bank.
Taxiing around and parking the planes around the ice fishing shacks and staying between the snow banks was interesting.
If a Google search for the Alton Bay Winter fly-in was done, many pilots posted a video showing what it's like to land. This is unique in NE. OFA or Yankee Magazine should do a story about it.
As the snow was plowed off the ice, it exposed the ice to freezing temperatures making the ice thicker. The benefit of thick ice.
There is no ice thickness chart showing up on this website.
Thanks for letting us know—it should be visible now!
I realize that my fears are probably completely ridiculous, but I live right on the banks of a river and my city curates walking, skating, and cross-country ski trails on it. I assume that they're measuring, and I frequently see lightweight vehicles driving down the skating trail (which is in the center and almost certainly where the ice would be thinnest) to clear off the snow, so I know that the ice is thick enough to support the weight of that vehicle. Even so, sometimes when I'm walking or skating, the ice will make cracking sounds that I find extremely alarming. It's been VERY cold here lately (like, -30 Celsius and lower), so I also know intellectually that it's almost certainly too cold for the ice to be in any danger of melting, yet the cracking sounds scare me. Is there anything you could tell me to reassure me that this is normal or something? The river itself is shallow, especially in winter (maybe 20' at the deepest, more like 8' at the shallowest), and there are places where you can see that the ice is at least a foot thick. All the same, I nearly have a heart attack every time I walk over a spot and it starts making those cracking sounds. Reassure me??
