Ice-out records
When does the ice go out?
Every spring the ice lets go of each northern lake on one particular day, and people have been writing that day down for a very long time — state agencies, lake associations, a betting pool in Alaska. IceOutDates keeps those records in one place: the full year-by-year history for every lake, the usual date, the earliest and latest ever, and — in season — where the current spring stands.
It's August 2026 right now, so these lakes are warm, open water. The next ice-out season is spring 2027 — tracking on each lake page wakes up when the ice forms this winter. The histories are here year-round.
Pick a state
Here for summer instead? Where a lake has a public temperature sensor we post the latest reading — right now: Lake Champlain water temperature.
How to read the numbers
Usually around is the middle of the lake's whole record — in half the recorded years the ice was out by that date, in half it wasn't. It's a better anchor than an average, because one freak year can't drag it.
Earliest and latest ever are the extremes actually written down, with their years. The gap between them is real — on long records it's often six weeks — which is why no one should plan a dock-in weekend off a single date.
The strip on each lake page marks every recorded year at its calendar-day position, so the usual week and the outliers show at a glance. The most recent year is the orange mark.
What counts as "ice-out" varies by lake — fully open water on one, a clear navigation lane on another, a tripod clock stopping at Nenana. Each lake's record sticks to its own source's call year over year, so the dates compare cleanly. More in how the records are kept.
Late ice is unpredictable — no date on this page says the ice is safe.