This morning (JANUARY 6th) I took a flight around southern Maine to see how the lakes and ponds were set for ice before tonight's snow covers them up.
The flight went from Auburn to Limington to Sanford to Fryeburg to Oxford then back to Auburn. So I must have seen over 30 lakes and ponds in that area. Spotting altitude was about 2,500 ft, so I got a clear view of each body of water.
The important thing to note is that NONE has safe ice.
Most of the bodies of water had no ice except in small coves, and that ice was very thin
with spring holes visible.
Spring holes are very visible from above.
Sebago was pretty much wide open except a couple of tiny coves.
Long lake in Harrison had the most ice cover that I saw today but there wasn't a single area that had continuous ice from shoreline to shoreline in any direction. I wouldn't have trusted the ice on that lake. It has spring holes too.
Posting this in case it is helpful. Once the snow covers what little ice there is, the thickness will be hard to determine.
Anywere south of Auburn and Fryeburg cannot be trusted for safe ice. I didn't fly north of these areas so I can't say what the ice is like.
Hope we get some clear cold nights to get the lakes and ponds to set up.
