Several types of birds congregate in open water along Lake Shore Drive in Auburn earlier this week. “Ice Out” was officially declared Friday. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
AUBURN — It may not seem like much with everything that’s happening with the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s something that the ice is out of Lake Auburn.
The news was announced quietly Friday afternoon, with Auburn Water District Watershed Manager Erica Kidd delivering the message in one sentence at about 9 a.m: “We are calling ice out for Lake Auburn today, 4/3/20.”
For what it’s worth, the ice out is way early this spring — an April 22 ice-out is average for the lake.
According to watershed records, Lake Auburn’s ice usually disappears in April, with ice-out occurring in that month 141 times over the past 180 years. The latest the ice has melted was May 14, 1874.
The Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands offers the following definition for ice-out: “When you can navigate unimpeded from one end of the water body to the other. There may still be ice in coves or along the shoreline in some areas, but when a person can traverse the entire water body without being stopped by ice floes, we will consider the ice to be out.”
Ice-out dates at Lake Auburn
2018: April 25
2017: April 19
2016: March 18 (earliest on record)
2015: April 23
2014: April 23
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