The Clean Lakes Alliance kicked off its annual Lake Mendota freeze contest on Saturday, where around 2,000 participants have the opportunity to predict the exact date when Mendota will fully freeze over.
The Alliance, founded in 2010, is a Madison nonprofit dedicated to improving water quality in the Yahara River Watershed. Its efforts include creating community plans to reduce phosphorus, putting conservation efforts in rural and urban settings to reduce runoff and participating in ‘Renew the Blue’, a partnership of 19 community groups dedicated to creating cleaner waterways.
The Wisconsin State Climatology Office (SCO), based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, determines the exact freeze date and has been tracking the freeze and thaw dates since 1852. Its earliest freeze was recorded as Nov. 23, 1880, while its latest freeze was recorded as Jan. 30, 1932.
To determine the freeze date, SCO requires ice cover for a full 24 hours, observing this from multiple high vantage points around campus, such as the University Observatory and the Atmospheric and Space Sciences building. Historically, however, there has been a secondary qualification for this freeze date.
During their work in the early 1900s, limnologists E. A. Birge and Chancey Juday introduced another method of determining whether Lake Mendota was frozen: Is it possible to deliver a case of beer by rowing a boat from UW-Madison to Maple Bluff?
James Tye, executive director of the Clean Lakes Alliance, told The Daily Cardinal, “The idea is that while that’s going on with researchers [determining freeze/thaw dates], let’s put this out there into the public so more people can get engaged with the science of the lakes.”
He said the contest encourages community members to connect closely with the lakes, creating a sense of care with them.
The 15th annual Lake Mendota Freeze Contest will run through Dec. 15. If participants guess the correct freeze date, they are entered into a lottery system to win a gift card to a local business.
Vote here for a chance to win the contest and become involved in your local lakes.
Staff Writer
