That's a good way to be! There are charts on it, but they are far from perfect. The rain will hurt the ice more than the warmer temperature, but not having snow on top will help make more ice faster when it gets cold again. When there's snow it insulates the ice causing it to form less quickly. Ice thickness is a funny thing. You can easily drive a quad on 10" of good ice. You can possibly fall through 10" of bad ice (end of the season). Springs can open holes early for the winter. Last Tuesday there were open spots 12" to 8 feet round with 8" of good ice at their sides where I was fishing. They were frozen back solid quickly by the cold weather. In the black ice they were kind of hard to see. A pretty good way to tell bad ice at the end of the season (based on my personal observation) - There will be a reasonable time frame when there is water on top of the ice from melting, maybe a few days to a week. Then there will be a day when there is no water on top of the ice, but it is still above freezing. This means the ice has become porous to the point the water can no longer be held on top (bad ice). You MIGHT be able to fish for a couple more days, but this is a great time to call it quits for the year. If you're not sure, don't go. Don't ever just go because someone else is out there. If anyone sees flaw in my logic please point it out for all of our safety.
