January 16, 2020
Lake freezes in while spring melt considered
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
bhg news service
When Todd Lindquist looked out his window at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Riverdale office Friday, the operations manager said the lake was “freezing quick.”
An abrupt drop in temperatures with calm winds meant that he predicted the lake would be frozen over during the past weekend or at the latest Monday. It didn’t wait that long. It was declared frozen on Saturday.
That was one of the latest dates on record, Jan. 11, an indication of the mild winter. The lake is considered completely frozen when the water freezes at the intake structure at Garrison Dam.
The latest freeze date on record was Jan. 18, 2012. There are early dates when the reservoir was filling.
A freeze date is the least of Lindquist’s worries.
His job is to oversee the evacuation of enough water out of the lake to make room for snow pack melt. This fall, the dam was releasing more than average – about 24,000 cubic feet per second – to clear some room in the big lake without causing ice jams on the Missouri River below.
An abrupt drop in temperatures with calm winds meant that he predicted the lake would be frozen over during the past weekend or at the latest Monday. It didn’t wait that long. It was declared frozen on Saturday.
That was one of the latest dates on record, Jan. 11, an indication of the mild winter. The lake is considered completely frozen when the water freezes at the intake structure at Garrison Dam.
The latest freeze date on record was Jan. 18, 2012. There are early dates when the reservoir was filling.
A freeze date is the least of Lindquist’s worries.
His job is to oversee the evacuation of enough water out of the lake to make room for snow pack melt. This fall, the dam was releasing more than average – about 24,000 cubic feet per second – to clear some room in the big lake without causing ice jams on the Missouri River below.
