Ice-out officially declared on Lake Minnetonka
The view from the Water Patrol's boat while checking for ice-out on April 18, 2019. (Melissa Turtinen/FOX 9)
SPRING PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) - Boating season is here on Lake Minnetonka after ice-out was officially declared on the popular lake.
The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and the Freshwater Society, in what's become a longstanding tradition to mark the start of boating season, officially declared ice-out at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, April 15.
Ice-out is declared when the sheriff's office Water Patrol and the Freshwater Society can safely boat through all the lake's channels and 37 bays without being obstructed by ice.
This year's ice-out is a few days later than the median ice-out date of April 13, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and more than two weeks later than in 2021, when ice-out was declared on March 30.
In 2020, ice-out was declared on April 2, and in 2019, it was declared on April 20. The earliest ice-out date on Lake Minnetonka was March 11, 1878, and the latest happened on May 5, 2018.
According to the DNR, many lakes in southern Minnesota are free of ice, while ice-out hasn't been declared on any lakes in northern Minnesota (the median ice-out for lakes in the northern half of the state is April 15 or later, the DNR says).