One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Last week started off strong if you like your springs green and your lakes freed of the tyranny of ice. High temperatures pushed into the 50s°F, lows touched freezing. At mid week, that changed.

During the warmer part of the week, we were treated to a very active bird community starting with a shy pileated that tried to hide behind some pine needles.

An eagle landed on the north shore to either rest or munch on something. It took off after about 15 minutes.

We have not had a B-52 flyover for years. Early last week, Lucerne did get a helo fly by. It was more thumpy than a B-52 and the pass lasted longer.

In addition to all the avian activity, there were ever expanding lawns and talk among the men of golf.

The lake hit maximum meltiness on Wednesday. Then clouds began to roll in and temperatures started to plummet.

The first round of snow wasn't as bad as forecast. It was essentially just a crusty dusting.

It got worse.

It wasn't all snow. The temperatures were close enough to freezing to produce some ice pellets and sleet.

The first round of cold melted off quickly. There was talk of a second batch of late winter on the weekend, but the mid-week event was so overhyped we were inclined to ignore the warnings. We knew it was serious when we saw the treating of Hwy 8.

On Saturday morning, we were greeted by a mini-me version of last year's ice storm.

The open areas of Lucerne closed up.

Power did not go out around the lake, but walking under power lines was potentially painful as the tubes of ice on the lines fell en masse just before noon.

The northshore otter was reported as grumpy.

By Sunday, the melt of all that ice, snow, and sleet created a chain-of-lawn-puddles that rivaled the larger chain near Eagle River.

The last task of the week was to check the ice covering Lucerne. There was 19 inches of weak ice on the lake. While this sounds like a lot, the quality of the ice is not good. Barring any more winter ugliness, the ice could be gone before May.

The edges were opening up again on Sunday. Going forward, the plan is for more lawn by next weekend and first golf shortly after that. Then ice-out. If you haven't got your date in yet for the Annual Lake Lucerne Ice-Out contest, you're urged to get it in before piers and lifts go in.

-Nemo's had enough with the sleet, demands more rain.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

March 30th through April 5th, 2026