Schlittschuh
About two weeks ago the ice formed unevenly because of boats and ships breaking the ice and strong winds keeping open water patches. A couple of skating groups succeeded in timing their skating for friday to sunday on various places in the Ekenäs area. However it was of utmost importance to constantly listen and test the ice in order to avoid sliding out on thin ice. The variation was from 0 to 6cm.
The local radio made an insert a couple of days later: http://svenska.yle.fi/nyheter/regionartikel.php?id=9063
Now we had temperatures above zero, mix of rain and snow that covered the ice and isolates it from proper thickening. Later cold days caused double ice - a layer of water between two thin sheets of ice. The lower ice softened and weakened while the upper sheet was not more than 4 cm.
A colder forecasted period has arrived with southwesternly winds. The layered ice will likely freeze together, while pathes where snow is thicker remains weaker. New ice might form if the winds stay weak, and my latest scouting indicates good prospects for the coming days.
As always, please learn to understand the ice and how to safely test it if you plan to expericence frozen ice and travelling by skates.
Cheers Jöns
This winter has been different from previous winters. We had snow earlier than during the latest 10 years, and it has been colder. On top - the water has been frozen since before mid December. As it happens there is no skating ice yet. We are expecting some later on in the winter. However something we call double ice has developed.
w acts as insulation on top of the upper ice and prevents the water between the layers from freezing. Without the snow we would have had strong compact ice able to carry a car, but now we only posess two fairly weak layers of soft ice. It does however carry a human being in most places..... as always there are weak spots too.
