The folks who organize the New England Pond Hockey Classic (NEPHC) on Lake Winnipesaukee are hopeful they’ll have solid ice next month, like they did last year when the Classic drew 150 teams (that’s 150 teams, not players) to New Hampshire’s largest lake and the summertime resort town of Meredith, which is on the northern shore of the lake where I spent my summers as a youngster. Although it’s a far cry from being iced over just yet (read: no ice), Lake Winnipesaukee’s water temperature is a bone-chilling 37 degrees and the air temperature is 30 degrees — ice is surely on its way. (My aunt and uncle who live on the lake during the summer and near the lake during the winter tell me they’ve seen it all — from ice thick enough to walk on in December to open water in February.)

Last year's New England Pond Hockey Classic on Lake Winnipesaukee, in Meredith, New Hampshire. How many rinks does it take to support 150 teams? Photo: BFP

Skipping west a bit, most of the Great Lakes remain ice-free today, while coastal areas are showing the beginnings of initial ice. Ice in the Great Lakes is running a bit behind schedule for this time of year, much to the relief of Great Lakes shipping commerce but to the disappointment of the weekend ice fishers. Typically by this time of year, coastal ice is more common while Lake Erie can experience ice concentrations of 90% or more by mid-January. (Though farther north and subjected to colder temperatures, Lake Superior is slower to ice over due to its sheer size.  On the other hand, Lake Erie, southernmost of the Great Lakes, is typically first to ice over because its volume of water is relatively small.)

Ice and colder temperatures are indeed on their way to the Great Lakes, however. So far, cold air has reached the region on several occasions, however a warm southerly flow quickly replaces the cold in a classic “cold/warm, what do I wear?” winter that is more common in southern states. Long-range forecasts are showing several cold Canadian air masses that should keep the temperatures well below normal while delivering a few major winter storms.

Not too much ice over the Great Lakes just yet. Image: NOAA

It's a little cloudier today, but this webcam image from yesterday looks almost like a summer afternoon - only the brown trees give away the illusion. As of today, the only thing freezing around Lake Winnipesaukee is the air temperature. Photo: Weirs Beach webcam

Farther west, following the cold breeze upstream to Alaska and the Bering Sea, there is no doubt about the ice. There’s lots and lots of ice. In fact, this video of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy slamming through the ice last Friday while escorting a fuel tanker to iced-locked Nome is what caused me to click into the webcams on the other side of North America to check the ice status of Lake Winnipesaukee.

Nome, where average January temperatures range from highs of 13 F to lows of -2 F, where no roads lead to (or from) other major cities and where there are no rail lines, is supplied only by ships traversing the the Bering Sea, or by planes. Case in point: the fuel tanker Renda now enroute from Dutch Harbor, AK to Nome with 1.4 million gallons of fuel (about 44,000 barrels of diesel and unleaded). With an estimated 250 miles of solid ice to plow through, the Renda is relying on the Healy to crack, crush, shove, pulverize and otherwise disperse the ice (with extreme prejudice) to form a slushy channel all the way to Nome. The two ships are often within shouting distance of one another as the Healy occasionally must return to the Renda to free it from the ice which rapidly fills in and reforms behind the Healy. Check out the amazing photos from the Healy mission here.

This ice-breaking delivery of fuel, by the way, is not standard procedure. Winter arrived early in this part of the world with bitter cold temperatures traveling from Siberia to Alaska as if by non-stop train. Due to the weather, the last scheduled delivery (mid-December) of fuel to Nome was turned away. With this news, residents feared fuel would be delivered by plane and visions of sugar plums were replaced by fears of skyrocketing fuel prices that would reach $9 per gallon. But it looks like the Healy will save the day (and the winter). If successful, this will be the first such fuel delivery to ice-locked Nome. It’s also likely this last-ditch effort to deliver fuel has Nome’s old-timers remembering the 1925 Serum Run — the desperately successful attempt to supply the town with life-saving serum to stave off an epidemic of diphtheria. Of course, dogsled teams and mushers made that overland journey — not fuel tankers and icebreakers — covering 674 miles in a record time of 5.5 days (the record still stands today).

No such worries however, for the residents of Meredith, NH. Once Lake Winnipesaukee ices over, an army of snow plows and sanders will keep the highways clear, ensuring that not only fuel makes it to these central New Hampshire residents, but also hockey teams and hockey fans from all over the Northeast and Canada.

The Coast Guard Cutter Healy, as seen from the deck of the Russian fuel tanker Renda, as it breaks and clears ice on the way to Nome, Alaska. The sea ice quickly closes in behind Healy making it slow going for the pair. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Seaman Benjamin Nocerini