Lake Simcoe Wind Sports:Ice Conditions

Legend (wind-chill)		Friday Jan 20, 2006 Cook's Bay, Keswick Festival Recommendations: Excellent conditions for everyone today. The snow from this morning and throughout the day covered up the slushy sections as well as could be expected. The overnight temperatures will be well below freezing and likely will freeze up most of the softer stuff but the snow could also insulate things and keep the moisture around a bit longer. The good new is with the changing wind direction (from n-w to s), the riding path will be at a different angle so riders may not have to ride too much of the frozen crud left from today's riders. 20km/hr winds from south around noon are in the forecast for Sunday. Due to the surface of the ice, it is not safe to park on the ice. Notice: Subscribe to Yahoo! Groups. Whether you're kite surfing on the water, kite skiing or Snowfering on the ice, or kite buggying on land there's an interest group for you. Gear up, and find your line of balance as you ride the wave of life outdoors!
Excellent Rating
Good to go
Proceed with caution
Danger	Open Water
Event

The following table of ice thickness versus ice strength, provided by the National Research Council of Canada and developed by E.R. Pounder, gives you the safe load for a given ice thickness of fresh lake and river ice

Liability Information
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*Report Date (windcast)*	*Location(click for details/map)*	*Snow/Ice Surface (colour-code)*	*Snow/Ice Depth (cm)*	*Edging (1-5, 1=excellent)/ Sun, Moon Rise-Set*		Snowmobile Watch	Open Water	Shoreline
	Puslinch Lake Fun Fly
Feb 4/5, 2006	Barrie Winterfest & The Festival of Ice
Jan 21/22 2006	4th Annual Lake Simcoe Winter Sports Festival
Jan 21, 2006	Parkwood Avenue (Cook's Bay)	slushy snow, freezing throughout the day and into the evening	5/>20cm	2		minor	none	solid
Jan 15, 2006	Parkwood Avenue (Cook's Bay)	wind blown precipitation on top of leveled ice	0/>20cm	2		minor	none	solid
Dec 10, 2005	Walter Drive (Cook's Bay)	cut up from the dozen or so riders today. south of the grass you can ride first tracks basically all day, there's a few soft spots close to some of the grass	10/20-25cm	3		minor	none west of the access, but very far in the distance probably about two thirds of the way up the lake on the west shore	solid, but the canal is a bit soft
Dec 7, 2005	Parkwood Avenue (Cook's Bay)	none/smooth grey ice with bands of refrozen ice running from between Roaches Point and 5 corners down towards Parkwoods Avenue then running west towards the opposite shoreline	0/10cm	3		none	none	frozen
	Walter Drive (Cook's Bay)	none/smooth grey ice, very smooth, not that hard smooth black ice that you often get from a first freeze, but still great for riding with skis or bladed craft	0/10cm	3		none	none	frozen
Dec 4, 2005	Walter Drive (Cook's Bay)	tba	tba	tba		tba	tba	tba
Previous seasons	Started				Ended
2004-2005	December 17, 2004				April 10, 2005
2003-2004	December 6, 2003				April 3, 2004
2002-2003	December 1, 2002				April 12, 2003
2001-2002	December 26, 2001				March 30, 2002
2000-2001	November 25, 2000				April 11, 2001
1999-2000	December 19, 1999				March 20, 2000
1998-1999					March 30, 1999

SAFE LOAD	OPERATION	FRESH ICE
One person	at rest	8 cm
0.4 ton	moving slowly	10 cm
2 ton vehicle	moving slowly	25 cm *
10 ton tracked vehicle	moving slowly	43 cm
13 ton aircraft	parked	61 cm
* estimated numbers, not provided in original table (source)

As I get more cam and weather feeds, I'll add them to this page. Be sure to check out
or current wind forecasts or this for Canadian winds.

Ice Conditions (most recent on top, Canada snow coverage, terminology, monitor page for changes, Ministry of NR, YRP, ice fishing ice report)