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	April 13th through 19th, 2020

At the start of last week the biggest snow storm of the season ended, but the white, icy footprints of the event were still tracking up the northwoods. Then came the cold. Wednesday morning's 2°F was just above the record for that date (-3°F). By Thursday, ZOMBIE WINTER had been chased back to the Arctic Circle by a mid-April sun. The outdoors got all melty.

There was a lot of melting for that April sun to do. After the storm we had just under a foot of snow on the north end of the lake.

For a day or two after the blizzard, a strong gust of wind would produce a highly localized white out under the pines.

As the temperatures bottomed out, the sap stopped dripping.

Without new sap, the cookers were shut down and the sugarmen relaxed and caught their breath.

When it finally warmed up, the melt produced some impressive lawn puddles. If you're stepping outside the cabin, don't forget your PFD.

The thaw restarted the taps.

The leaking maples pushed the sugarmen into the woods to collect those drips.

The new inflow of sap eventually led to another canning event on the lane.

On the weekend, the dripping of the maples started to accelerate.

The snow in the woods melted to the point where tracks could be swapped for wheels.

The thaw produced some notable changes on the lake.

The North end of the lake ice started to pull away from the shore.

It's not open enough for a ski run or anything, but that's okay. Most piers, lifts, and boats weren't in anyway.

Other area lakes shook off the effects of the cold. Ice that had reformed on Devils Lake soon vanished.

Lakes Wabikon and Riley continued to move closer to their ice-out.

A giant crack split the ice on Lake Metonga in twain.

By Sunday evening, there was evidence that the sheets were starting to move. I don't think the ice covering Lake Metonga will make it to next weekend.

One sign of ice-out on Lucerne is an uptick of views on the knottlane webpage. During the past decade, we've noticed a sharp rise in views about a week or two before ice-out. First, I'd like to give my deepest thanks to everyone for taking the time to peek at this site. It's support from people like you that motivates us to keep it up. Secondly, if your date in this year's <a href='https://knottlane.com/iceout/IceOut2020.html' class='defaultlink2' target='_blank'>ice-out contest</a> is April 29th plus or minus 3 days, you're looking good.

With many of the effects of ZOMBIE WINTER! behind us, the focus is on ice-out. Will the ice be gone before the end of April? Will it push into May as it did the last two years? Will another rare Winter event occur and push ice-out past the opening of fishing season or even into June? We can't say for sure, but we can schedule the pulling of the taps and the cleaning of the buckets. That'll happen next week and involve many trips to the sugarbush, lots of scrubbing, and more bleach than any one man can safely drink. Let's hope for less rain and especially less snow. The current precipitation amounts are making islands of certain cabins and tee boxes.<br><br><br>-Nemo got his tee time and PFD.

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