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 close 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.) 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. Guessing will close on March 7th.
The guesses will be recorded in two ways, one with the exact time and date and the other will be a general time frame. The exact times of guesses will not be published until the end of the guessing period. The general time frames, that will be posted on the website, will be Early March, Mid March, Late March, Early April, Mid April and Late April. (The ice better be out by May!) Posting only the general time frames for the guesses means 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.
The contest is now open. All guesses will be made by email. *Limit one guess per person. Send your guess as an email to: info@wentworthwatershed.org
Please also include “Ice Out Guess” in the subject line. Make sure that you include the date and time of day and whether it is AM or PM.
Dates of previous Ice Outs are given below. Guessing will close on Sunday, March 6th at 11:59 PM. (There is little chance that the ice will be out by March 6th.) If you win, you get bragging rights and even a small 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 closest to the “judged” time. A committee (that varies) makes the decision. All committee members are certified by the International Commission for Exactness (ICE).
Current Guesses for 2022
| Late March | Kathy Shea | 3/28/2022 | 15:15 |
| Nancy Gilbert | 3/29/2022 | 16:55 | |
| Early April | John Buttrick | 4/2/2022 | 11:59 |
| Patrick Curry | 4/2/2022 | 14:00 | |
| Karen Ouhrabka | 4/4/2022 | 16:00 | |
| Sara Buttrick | 4/7/2022 | 14:30 | |
| Timothy Robson* | 4/9/2022 | 12:00 | |
| Mary Ellen Galanis | 4/9/2022 | 17:00 | |
| Bruce Gifford | 4/10/2022 | 14:30 | |
| Mid April | Lauren Olitski Poster | 4/11/2022 | 14:52 |
| Kate Ellis | 4/11/2022 | 15:00 | |
| Julie Brown | 4/12/2022 | 10:30 | |
| Peter Galanis | 4/12/2022 | 15:00 | |
| Daniel Ross | 4/13/2022 | 13:30 | |
| Tom Ouhrabka | 4/13/2022 | 16:00 | |
| Scott Ragusa | 4/13/2022 | 19:00 | |
| Christine Curry | 4/14/2022 | 14:00 | |
| Becky Arnold | 4/15/2022 | 12:00 | |
| Eric Ouhrabka | 4/15/2022 | 17:00 | |
| Carl Crosley | 4/16/2022 | 10:30 | |
| Joe Erwin | 4/16/2022 | 11:00 | |
| Late April | Jean Erwin | 4/20/2022 | 11:00 |
| Debbie Bayne | 4/21/2022 | 16:15 | |
| Susan Vail | 4/23/2022 | 4:03 |
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 AM 2021 Apr. 1 7:00 AM