Guest post by A. Scott
Even though we all know “weather is not “climate,” that rarely stops CAGW’s fiercest proponents, so we might as well have a little fun with it as well. This weekend is the 2013 Minnesota State Fishing Opener. And the joke around these parts is the most important equipment a fisherman needs this year is …. an ice auger.
Minnesota, like much of the country (as reported at WUWT here) is currently undergoing its own ‘little ice age’ with record late season snows (18″ in southeastern MN a week ago) and cold, and near record ice out dates on the State’s lakes. Lakes in the southern third of the State saw ice outs approaching new records and many lakes in the northern half of the state are still ice covered today.
“Lake Minnetonka” in the Mpls/St. Paul area finally saw ice out on May 2nd, which easily could have been extended to May 5th or 6th had the 18″ snowstorm moved about 40 miles to the West. The Freshwater Society history shows 134 years of ice out dates for Lake Minnetonka, going back to the mid 1800’s. Median ice out for Lake Minnetonka over the last 150+ years is April 14th. Only 3 years – 1856, 1857 and 1859 – saw later ice out dates than 2013.
The story is more fun as you travel to central and northern Minnesota. Outdoors writer and photographer Ron Hustvedt wote today in a story in the Star Tribune:
In 30-plus years of fishing the mythical Minnesota walleye opener, I can safely say I’ve never seen ice on my favorite lakes this late in the season. It’s been close a few years but never like this and, according to the record books, only a time or two like this in the last century.
The picture above isn’t just a random ice auger shot – its real, from earlier today. Here’s another … 
Please do not try this at home – these guys intimately knew the area, were well outfitted with life preservers and safety gear, and never ventured into areas more than a few feet deep.
In another story, from Thursday, the Star Tribune’s Doug Smith notes:
Some of Minnesota’s most popular fishing lakes are expected to be iced in on Saturday’s fishing opener — an occurrence not seen in perhaps 60 years. Ice reportedly is still 2 feet thick on some northern lakes, and … major lakes from Lake Mille Lacs north … still could be mostly ice-covered Saturday. “There will be substantial ice cover on the northern third of the state,’’ said Henry Drewes, Department of Natural Resources regional fisheries manager in Bemidji. “It will not be gone by Saturday. This is certainly the most significant late-season ice cover I have seen in my 25 years with the DNR.’’
Some great live pictures from MN lake webcams at www.mnlakecams.com
Oh, and it was snowing earlier today in Duluth, MN. On May 11th.
And here’s what you really came to see – a live, active “glacier” – a moving wall of ice – a ‘little ice age’- right here, right now, in Minnesota today 😉 …
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
[snip.]
@ur momisugly Moe, here is an excellent video done by Bob Tisdale, which should put to rest the rather obvious misconceptions you have about the lack of further warming the past 16+ years, in response to the SkS “refutations” of the idea:
Remember, the starting date for the period “the past 16+ years” is today, working backwards. I know this is a difficult concept for those who have drunk the Koolaid, but you can do it if you try. We have faith in you.
Moe;
DB Boehm, why do people pick 1998 as the starting point to illustrate a point. I challenge you to pick any other starting point and see what you get.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
LOL. Your assertion was that (and I quote):
Look at any graph showing the surface temperatures for the last 150 years, you will see periods of time where it appears to level off, then off it goes trending up again. Never does it get colder after an apparent plateau.
So, you are being shown a time period where not only is what you say wrong, but it also coincides with the highest levels of co2 ever, and you immediately complain about cherry picking. Your focus on the last 150 years in order to ignore the 250 years of the exact same pattern of warming is what? Science? Did you bother to look at the NOAA data I linked for you so that you can see just how small a blip recent warming is in the context of earth’s natural variability? Or do you only look at the data which supports your position?
The fact of the matter is that the warmist position has been that co2 increases would dominate natural variability. Now that we’ve had 16+ years of cooling trend during the highest levels of CO2 “ever”, the argument is suddenly that the cooling since 1998 is natural variability and 1998 is just cherry picking. So CO2 doesn’t dominate natural variability after all? Pick a position and stick with it!
It will be informative to follow reports from Alaska and Canada about the extent of snow fields that do not melt this summer. Year-round snow fields is an early symptom of an emerging ice age.
Moe says: May 13, 2013 at 5:36 am
[Snip. “Moe” is a serial troll who posts under the screen names:
Looks like he got moed down….
@ur momisugly markx…voted up hehehehe
Record setting heat in Minnesota today. Can’t wait for the blog post about it.
sceptical,
Must mean the sea ice is at record levels, since we now know that lack of sea ice causes it to be cold.
For Fishing we should prefect tools and equipment. I have gone in deep sea fishing key west florida i mat many people there who where having different kind of fishing equipment and they were experienced also.