By Elmer Beauregard

The ice was officially out on Lake Minnetonka on May 2, 2013. This was the 3rd latest ice-out date since records have been taken all the way back to 1855. The only two years where the ice went out on a later date than 2013 was May 5th, 1857 and May 4th, 1859. The earliest ice-out date was March 11, 1879. Last year was the third earliest ice-out date March 31, 2012.

Lake Minnetonka is the Twin Cities largest metro area lake and they have been keeping track of the ice-out dates for over 150 years. As you can see by this chart there doesn't seem to be any trend one way or the other even with the urban heat island effect.

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