Unseasonably warm weather is causing Sylvan Lake’s mayor to warn the public to use caution and common sense before setting a foot — or a car tire — onto lake ice.
“Typically it happens that vehicles go through the ice first thing in the winter and last thing in the spring, when the ice is not safe,” said Susan Samson, mayor of the Town of Sylvan Lake.
But above-zero temperatures that were supposed to hit 7 C on Sunday are creating unusually balmy January conditions.
Samson noticed there’s enough thawing going on to cause Golf Course Creek to flow into Marina Bay, creating a soft ice surface where the bay empties into the lake.
A couple was sent to the hospital when their off-road vehicle broke through the ice near Marina Bay last week.
While Samson believes that pooling water should have been their tip-off that ice was too thin to support a vehicle, that kind of thawing and creek flow was not a problem last winter, when the weather was frigid.
“We might have to do more public awareness about the unusually warm winter we are having,” said Samson, although she noted two of the most popular accesses — the public marina access and the Marina Bay one — are already gated off to vehicles.
Samson doesn’t know how the off-road vehicle made it through at Marina Bay, except to surmise “you can drive through people’s yards with ATVs.”
Sylvan Lake resident Brian Mooney recently advocated in a letter to the local paper that town workers, assisted by local businesses, should check and post ice thicknesses in various spots as a public service.
“Sledding and even driving with a vehicle has been happening on Sylvan Lake forever,” wrote Mooney, who gauges whether ice thickness is safe by looking for heavy ice-clearing equipment or fishing huts on the frozen lake. “This is likely foolhardy,” he added, considering both were present when the couple broke through the ice near the lake’s edge on Dec. 31.
“It is not sufficient to say ‘ice varies in thicknesses on a lake and caution should be taken’ when town-owned heavy equipment is out there.”
But Samson said it would be impossible to measure ice thicknesses at every access point to the lake. In any case, the only in-town access is where the public skating rink has been created, and warning signs are already posted.
“There’s a large sign that you can’t miss that says it’s not recommended for vehicles to travel on the ice. If you move past the sign you do so at your own risk,” said Samson, who feels the Town “has taken all precautions and measures” to warn people of the risks of travelling on the lake. People should use common sense, added the mayor, who noted there are still a lot of fishing huts near the middle of the frozen water body, where ice is estimated to be a foot thick and safe enough to support vehicles.
If more melting occurs, causing the access by the ice rink to become unsafe, it will also be gated off, said Samson. This won’t present a problem unless the warm weather continues into February, when three big events are planned for the lake — Winterfest, a Pond Hockey tournament, and a speedskating race.
“It’s way too soon to think about cancelling any of these events now,” she said. Cooler weather is expected before next weekend.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com