February 20, 1997

Ice Observations for Marquette Area provided by Marlene

yesterday as far as the eye could see from marquette, there was no ice. today however is a different story. travelling 6 miles east m-28 toward munising.. there is a great snow/ice shelf that looks like hilly mounds 3-4 feet high, those extend out into the lake about 100 feet or so (i don't know how accurate my depth perception is ) then for about the same amount of distance was flat sheet of ice, very white, couldn't determine thickness from my distance., then past that the water was bluish white, with very little movement. heading into mqt. from my house along the rock cut, it appears an ice flow came in last night. it looks to be about plus or minus a foot or 2 thick. near the power plant before town, there is only a very thin transparent layer. between the two breakwalls in mqt, which extends from the light house to presque isle, there is no ice. but the water past the breakwalls, has a white layer over it. at presque isle, the other side of the wall, there is ice covering the water for as far as you can see to the horizon, the stuff closest to me looked likehug e grayish, bluish, white floating corpuscles, you know kinda of crusty on the edges and transparent in the middle. in chatting with a friend who lives 10 miles up co. rd. 550, he says there is an ice shelf that extends 75-80 feet out that has been there pretty much all winter. he thinks it's about 10 feet thick, beyond that was water until this morning, and now there is ice that extends pretty much as far as he can see, but he said he wouldn't try walking on that. the only place that looked warm was the hot pond near the power plant, actually it looked like a steam bath, and no elephants were in sight. and of course, it is all very beautiful.