Weather?

[Jawbreaker]

Well, next week is going to be around 40 - 50 most days and rain with night time temps mostly above freezing. Should I get the boat and my ice fishing baits together? How much ice is floating around the West end?

[West Basin]

One of the long and short term weather sites I monitor that has a very good record of getting accurate forecasts, as accurate as our current weather modeling permits, so far has been about 50%. It got December mostly correct with the early warm then the cold snap. His predicted short warm period in early January is forecast for about two weeks or more longer than he expected. He called for a real winter pattern to start around mid-January, being colder than usual for the Lake Erie region. That may still happen according to some of the factors he monitors, just later than expected, around the end of January / beginning of February. If so we may get some ice fishing but it will be late and probably short, as he expects a normal to slightly early spring. The last full week in January and the first week into February will tell. If constant cold temperatures don’t arrive by then, most likely we won't get any ice fishing and we’ll all be waiting for the ice free open water season to start sometime in March.