Frozen Finally!

Global warming is on everyone's mind. Its on every talk show on TV or radio. And quite often, you will hear President Bush being blamed for the effects of global warming too! Due to the El Niño effect, it has been predicted that 2007 would be the warmest year so far. Nevertheless, not many in Madison are complaining about the late beginning of winter this year. When I spoke to our hospital shuttle driver about 2 weeks back, he said he couldn't care less about when the Madison lakes would freeze this year. He seemed thrilled to envision a scenario in which they might not freeze at all.

But some of the more adventurous and enthusiastic Madisonites would beg to differ, and among them are the cross-country skiers, ice-fishers, the snowmobile-riders, ice-sculptors and the kite-fliers. A lot of the culture of Madison depends on how thick the sheet of ice is. Madison was the host of the now defunct 'Kites on Ice' fest held annually on the frozen Lake Mendota (see picture below). Teams from all over the mid-West and other parts of the US and Canada convened to compete in a kite-flying test, replete with music and fanfare, with the participants and the audience cheering as they stood on the frozen Mendota. I was fortunate to have witnessesd this truly fine event in 2005, that was thence discontinued because the “weather situation in Wisconsin became too iffy”.

Just as everyone was speculating whether the lakes would freeze, on the night of January 20, Mendota lake froze, it seems, in dramatic fashion as it always does. There has not been a year in the past 150 years of record-keeping when it has not frozen, and this year had the second-latest freeze date (compare with January 30 in 1932). Now, everyone (in the Limnology or Climatology departments or anyone who is just interested) is watching if the record for the shortest time of freeze is going to be broken. And when you compare the longest duration of freeze (161 days in 1880-81) to the shortest (21 days in 2001-02), you cannot but wonder what would happen one century from now. Would it have happened if they had elected Al Gore in place of George Bush?