Canada Ping!
Posted on 01/03/2014 7:41:07 PM PST by Squawk 8888
The ice on Lake Ontario sparkles in the afternoon winter sun.
“Come over here,” beckons Tyler Hnatuk. “I’ve found a perfect spot.”
Alec Farquhar, his wife Kathleen McDonnell and I pivot on our skates and speed north. Ahead of us, across the frozen lake, bristle Toronto’s towers. Our skates bounce on bumpy patches and slow down over snow drifts. We come to open, smooth ice, longer than many rinks. We glide to and fro, swirling and smiling and enjoying the great outdoors.
Some in Toronto complain when the thermometer dips to -26C, as it did outside my kitchen window Friday morning. Not me. “Cold Weather Alert?” Count me in. Cold weather means natural ice.
On New Year’s Day my son and I skated on Grenadier Pond in High Park; alas, the freeze-thaw cycle left it too bumpy. Good news came from Mr. Farquhar, one of Toronto’s devotees of skating on natural ice. By day, he is director for the Office of the Worker Advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Labour. On his down time, Mr. Farquhar and Ms. McDonnell, Toronto Island residents since 1981, love to skate on Toronto Harbour. A few years ago he added me to 90 people on the email list for his “ice report.”
“We found a large patch of nice smooth ice over towards the RCHC [Royal Canadian Yacht Club] quite close to the shore along Snake Island,” Mr. Farquhar wrote Monday. “It was very solid — probably six inches at minimum. A group of us had a nice skate there this afternoon on a brilliant sunny day. The iceboat was out sailing as well.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
Canada Ping!
Ice skating on the Thames during the little ice age.
Maybe this will a be year when somebody succeeds in driving from Cleveland to Canada.
Lake Erie is shallow enough that it will probably freeze shore-to-shore this year. Lake Ontario never freezes over completely because of the water depth and the current. The biggest sections of ice we get are around Toronto Harbour because it’s almost fully enclosed.
Lake Erie will eventually disappear unless we get another ice age.
Erie was formed when the weight of the ice made a depression in the earth.
The ground under erie is rebounding at about 6 inches a year.
Ice is great only when it’s in my Margarita.
Cheers.
So in about 160 years it will be a swamp! something for your great-great grandchildren to anticipate!
I knew it was rebounding (along with the entire Great Lakes Basin) but didn’t realize it was that fast. I do recall reading once that at some point in the distant future, Erie will be a river comparable to the St. Lawrence.
Swamps can be turned into some amazing farmland. There’s an are north of here that was a drained swamp and it’s got the richest soil in the whole country.
Yup.
It is called “headward erosion.”
Look at some old maps of Niagara Falls to see how much longer the St. Lawrence River has become in a very short time.
You made me want to recheck my facts which were wrong.
http://www.hillsdalecounty.info/planningeduc0026.asp
“. The crust is rising the most, more than 21 inches per century, in the northern portion of the basin, where the glacial ice sheet was the thickest, heaviest and the last to retreat. There is little or no movement in the southern parts of the basin. As a result, the Great Lakes basin is gradually tipping, a phenomenon most pronounced around Lake Superior.”
http://greatlakesecho.org/2009/06/08/lake-levels-report-weighs-great-lakes-basins-glacial-legacy/
“The International Joint Commission, a binational group that manages the Great Lakes, wanted to know if that was happening between Lake Huron and Lake Erie.
Around 1860, the surface of Lake Huron sat around 9 feet higher than the surface of Lake Erie, according to the IJC report released in May. By 2008, Huron was only 6 feet higher than Erie.
“
Interesting. I knew the rebound was going on but it didn’t occur to that it would be faster in the north.
The fierce winter winds usually break up the ice when it is thin and it gets blown into jagged windrows. It can pile up over 50 feet thick.
From the shore right now, the ice goes out as far as you can see, which is common, but it is very jagged due to a lot of strong winds.
Right now it doesn't look good for driving.
Not in a car. The snow and ice pile up in ridges that make it impossible to drive.
Maybe in a snowmobile. Dogsled, cross country skis, snow shoes, or a good pair of boots perhaps. It has been done but you better be ready for a challenge.
It has been really cold here this week but I don't know if Lake Erie is frozen over yet.
That looks like it might be close to Centre Island. The water isn’t as deep as it is on other parts along the shore. It wouldn’t be iced up without very cold temps.
Pretty close- it’s actually near the Ward’s Island ferry dock. It usually takes several days below -10C to get ice that’s safe.
Seems like I read about bootleggers bringing booze
over from Canada on the ice.
When I was 10 I skated behind an island in a very large pond.
There was no light except starlight, and no sound but the sound of my skates on the ice cutting through snow.
It was glorious and I remember it as if it was last night. Just beautiful.
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