This is the week that the ice came off of South Georgian Bay. March 20th is exceptionally early to lose the ice. 2020 is definitely one of the milder winters that I can recall.
Sunday, March 15th, 2020 – The Bat is open except for shore ice pictures here. You can see that pressure from incoming waves are causing the ice to fragment into slabs of ice.Sunday, March 15th, 2020 – Looking easy on my daily trek towards beach one. The sand is frozen solid.Monday, March 16th, 2020 – well above freezing today. The ice fragmenting into slabs is more pronounced.Wednesday, March 18th, 2020 – Another warm day. Taking looking east just east of 18th street. You can see a damaged white fence that was well back from the water in prior years.Thursday, March 19th, 2020 – The “melt continues” – Looking west across the bay toward Collingwood with the ski hills @ the Blue Mountains in the background. The bay is peppered with floating ice. As the ice melts, the concentration of sand relative to water increases making the ice increasingly dirty.Friday, March 20th, 2020 – Strong west winds today pummeling the shore – this is almost certainly the end of the shore ice on Wasaga Beach.Saturday, March 21st, 2020 – Sure enough – Saturday morning the ice is gone. Usually the water is far away from the boardwalk, but the water is at record high levels still. The beach is really ugly – note some weeping tile on the beach. As the high water does damage across the Great Lakes, all kinds of debris is piling up on shore.
