The deadline for submitting guesses officially closed on Sunday, March 8th at 11:59pm.
Want to guess the day and time the ice on the lake goes out? Now is your chance. The Ice Out Contest will be in last year’s format. The exact time and date of guesses won’t be published but just the “ranges” of the guesses. This will be closer to the model for the Ice Out Contest on the Tanana River, that flows through Fairbanks, Alaska. (The prize for guessing ice-out for that contest averages over $250,000 and we are sorry the prize for the Lake Wentworth Ice Out won’t be that large, not even close- think coffee mug or hat). The Tanana ice out is all blind guessing, you put your guess in an envelope (with money) and the envelopes are opened after the ice goes out.
The guesses will be recorded in two ways this year, one with the exact time and date and the other will be a general time frame. The time frames will be Early March, Mid March, Late March, Early April, Mid April, Late April and May. (The ice better be out by May!) The general time frames for the guesses will be reported on the website but not the exact times and dates. This will mean that people can just guess the date and time that they want and not worry about stepping on other people’s toes by guessing too close to someone else’s guess. The existing guesses will be updated regularly.
Dates of previous Ice Outs are given at the bottom of this article. Guessing will close on Sunday, March 8th at 11:59 PM. (There is little chance that the ice will be out by March 8th.) If you win, you get bragging rights and maybe even a prize.
Ice Out is declared when “all the shores are free of ice” so that people could launch boats if they desired. This means that there are no “icebergs” floating around that would be dangerous for navigation. The winner is the person with the closest guess to the official Ice Out date and time. A committee of Association volunteers make the declaration. All committee members are certified by the International Commission for Exactness (ICE).
Current Guesses for 2020
| Early March | |||
| Middle March | Julie Brown John Goodwin |
3/16 3/17 |
2:00pm 2:00pm |
| Late March | Eric Ouhrabka Howie Hoyt Karen Ouhrabka Susan Goodwin Brian Ellis Kathryn Shea Shane Arnold Lisa Arnold John Lydeard William Durfee Brook Arnold Oliver Heimiller |
3/23 3/23 3/24 3/25 3/26 3/28 3/28 3/28 3/29 3/30 3/31 3/31 |
2:00pm 4:00pm 1:00pm 1:30pm 6:45pm 10:18am 3:31pm 11:11pm 3:00pm 11:30am 11:11am 11:30am |
| Early April | Lukas Heimiller Piper Ouhrabka Rosemary Lounsbury Lee Arnold Nancy Gilbert Susan Ouhrabka Peter Galanis Thomas Ouhrabka Ethan Arnold Brian Ouhrabka Annie Arnold Carl Crosley Steve Arnold Mary Ellen Galanis |
4/1 4/1 4/2 4/2 4/3 4/3 4/4 4/5 4/8 4/8 4/8 4/8 4/8 4/9 |
8:15am 4:00pm 2:05pm 2:30pm 1:23pm 3:00pm 2:00pm 2:00pm 7:11am 3:00pm 3:00pm 4:00pm 4:00pm 11:30am |
| Middle April | Peter Goodwin Becky Arnold Daniel Ross Jean Erwin Bruce Gifford Katie Ellis Lauren Poster Jill Heimiller Joe Erwin Debbie Bayne |
4/10 4/10 4/13 4/15 4/15 4/15 4/15 4/17 4/20 4/20 |
9:00am 3:00pm 3:00pm 1:00pm 3:00pm 3:00pm 3:15pm 8:15am 11:00am 4:00pm |
| Late April | Debbie Crane E. James Smith Dauson Bere Jeff Heimiller |
4/22 4/23 4/24 4/24 |
4:30pm 4:33pm 9:00am 12:35pm |
| May | Isla Arnold | 5/8 | 3:00pm |
Previous Ice Out Dates
1972 May 2 1973 April 26 1974 April 14 1975 April 24 1976 April 8 1977 April 18
1978 April 28 1979 April 23 1980 April 10 1981 March 31 1982 April 24 1983 April 4
1984 April 16 1985 March 31 1986 April 5 1987 April 12 1988 April 17 1989 April 17
1990 April 10 1991 April 6 1992 April 9 1993 April 20 1994 April 22 1995 April 1
1996 April 12 1997 April 20 1998 April 7 1999 April 8 2000 April 5 2001 April 28
2002 April 4 2003 April 24 2004 April 17 2005 Apr 17 5:30 PM 2006 Apr. 1 12:00 PM
2007 Apr. 23 6:00 AM 2008 Apr. 23 8:00 AM 2009 Apr. 12 6:00 AM 2010 Mar. 23 3:00 PM
2011 Apr. 20 2:30 PM 2012 March 22 12:00 PM 2013 Apr. 14 3:15 PM 2014 Apr. 19 3:00 PM
2015 Apr. 20 7:45 PM 2016 March 18 9:00 AM 2017 Apr. 16 7:00 PM 2018 April 24 8:15 AM
2019 Apr. 20 7:45 PM 2020 Apr. 3 10:30