High winds lead to open water and ice shoves on Lake Winnebago
HARRISON (WLUK) -- Rain poured Thursday around much of The Fox Valley, and on Lake Winnebago, high winds forced ice from the water to the shore.
One area was the northern shoreline near Harrison.
"It's piled up the highest right now in this area out here," said Dan Laeyendecker of Harrison.
Laeyendecker says the ice shoves arrived outside his home early Thursday morning.
"We only have about three inches of ice out there. and the wind blows this hard, it will start to move the lake around, if there's open water, which there is," he said.
On the western shoreline, big blue mounds of ice pile up just off Menominee Park in Oshkosh.
"Thereby creating big ice shoves. You might have ice shoves this high, coming up 10-20 feet on that west side of the lake," said Bill Lodi, Rippn-Lips Tackle Company Owner.
Lodi says strong winds out of the southeast caused the shoves. On Winnebago's eastern shoreline in places like Stockbridge Harbor, and Quinney, open water stretched for miles. And that's not all. The rain had an impact too.
"You get all these little creeks, that flow into the lake, and what that does, is creates runoff from a lot of the farms that are on this side of the lake. By the time this stuff gets to the middle of the lake, the lake can be churned up, and it can get pretty dirty," said Lodi.
Sturgeon spearing season is still about six weeks off.
"We're hoping that a lot of that sediment settles down before sturgeon spearing. And the water clarity will be better than we had previous years," said Lodi.
Back to the northern shoreline, Laeyendecker says dealing with the shoves is just part of the routine for many living on Lake Winnebago.
"This is part of the deal. But the good outweighs the bad, so you just have to deal with it," he said.
Authorities say conditions on Lake Winnebago change frequently, and no ice is ever considered 100 percent safe.
Experts say it will take many days with single-digit or below-zero temperatures before conditions improve.