DEATH OF A FROZEN LAKE/THE REBIRTH OF SPRING
The picture posted on the 25th April 2006, under the house, shows Sylvan Lake frozen. Perfect white. People ice skate, curl (that great sport of chasing large stones with handles along the ice and lots of mad sweeping going on in front of the stone) and even drive their cars on it. It has just, and I mean just, started to melt on the edges. What happens next is the complete breakdown of a structure that was built by 'winter'. A frozen lake is not like ice out of the freezer. It is a mass of packed shards of long ice, all 'standing' side by side. It is like the adhesion between the shards breaks. The lake turns a dirty grey colour.

The shards then float around in one large loose mass, thus now being at the mercy of the wind which will blow it around the lake where it piles up on itself. These piles can be up to 6' high. It is now back to white.

From here the ice mounds are doomed, they now just melt in the warm spring sun. Then before you know it, the boats are out and there is activity once again but without the winter jackets, rubber ones instead.

The lake is now ready for those who dare to brave the cold waters. The above photo also shows another phenomena called a Chinook. It is a band of warm air that swoops down from the Rookies and only happens in winter. It can raise the local temperature by as much as 10 degrees and is defined by a straight band of cloud. The name comes from the traditional people that lived around the mouth of the Columbia River which is where these winds originate.