Cisco Sonar

By Bryce Nielson

Bear Laker's

Bryce Nielson
 

It is cold outside.  Somehow all the snow that fell in the past five days missed us.  As a weather freak, I have observed over the years that winter storms that come across Nevada frequently miss Bear Lake.  It is the weather that comes from the Pacific Northwest that pound us.  The lake and what it is doing also has a lot of impact on the weather.

Bear Lake Beginning to Freeze 
Photo by Bryce Nielson

As I sit here on Sunday morning it is well below zero but there is not much fog.  That tells me that the lake is now in the process of serious freezing.  I can see the huge shards of ice forming on the lake.  The north end will be the first to freeze.  It is much colder there.  Just look at the temperatures in Dingle and Bern as the cold air follows the Bear River into the Valley.   The lake is much shallower in the north end so there is no deeper, warmer water to mix with the surface.  Ice then forms down the west.  The accompanying  picture was taken this morning showing the ice formation off Fish Haven and Swan Creek.   It freezes clear but the condensing snow/ice makes it white.  It then shoots out in front of Garden City and freezes out off Ideal Beach and Gus Rich Point.  There is a natural back eddy current there that keeps the water colder.

 At this point people down by the lake can only see ice and think the lake is frozen.  Not so.  The east side with its deepwater and  current upwellings keep the water warmer and discourage the ice.  Eventually it will freeze and the last area to become solid will be right off North Eden.  Two major current cells collide there and as the cold winds pour down North Eden Canyon it keeps the water stirred up..

The lake has not totally frozen in the past four  years.  Will it freeze totally this year?  I think there is a good chance of it which will make a lot of fishermen happy.  We will have a nice clear winter but spring will be delayed by three weeks and the water will still be chilly on the Fourth of July.

Bryce

Editor's  note:  I know my friends all over the world would be totally amazed  that I'm eagerly checking the lake five times a day to see if it is frozen yet!  Yet everyone I'm talking to is.  Are you?