Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

It won’t be long before the bigger lakes in central and northern Minnesota shed ice cover. 

On the image at the top of this post, you can clearly see ice-free lakes working quickly north. I’ve highlighted Minnetonka, White Bear, and Minnewaska on the image above. I’ve also circled Gull Lake and Mille Lacs which are still ice-covered. 

Lake Mille Lacs is showing clear signs of breaking up. The cracks in the Mille Lacs ice sheet are so big now they are visible from 23,000 feet up in orbit from NASA’s MODIS Terra satellite on the image above. 

Here’s some ground truth on the state of ice on Mille Lacs from

On the map below, you can see the ice is out on nearly all lakes now in the southwest half of Minnesota. There are even a few smaller lakes reporting ice out in central and northern Minnesota. It’s happening fast this year. You can check the ice-out status of your favorite lake on the 

With our weekend warmth and stiff southerly winds again Friday, I expect many more lakes will go ice-free this weekend. It’s possible we could see some ice shoves on the north shore of bigger lakes Friday.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Mille Lacs ice cracks visible from space. Ice out moving rapidly north across Minnesota.

NASA MODIS 250-meter visible satellite image Thursday

NASA via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ice and open water on Lake Mille Lacs Thursday 

Mille Lacs ice cracks visible from space

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox