AUBURN – Lake Auburn is now free of ice.

The winter coat was on its last legs Monday morning. A stiff breeze developed in mid-afternoon and drove the remaining ice to the shorelines. A check around the lake at daybreak Tuesday discovered only “shell” ice in a few areas. For all intents and purposes, the lake is ice-free.

So, the date of Monday, April 23, will be etched into the Sun Journal’s unofficial ice-out date list for Lake Auburn.

A crew from the Auburn Water District was installing the dock at the East Auburn boat launch early Tuesday morning.

Lake Auburn’s earliest ice-out date since 1900 was March 30, 1981. The latest ice-out date was May 6 in both 1939 and 1940.

Last year’s date was March 31.