# curious question



## bopperattacker (Sep 12, 2008)

I fish a lot of ponds, and with a full thaw on, I peep at any pond I can see on my way to and from work. Today I saw one pond free and clear of all ice, and then the pond 8 houses down was just open of ice around the banks... 

How is this possible? It seems 2 out of 3 ponds where ice free, leaving the others partially covered, or still iced over.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

a lot of the ice foramtion i srelated to how much wind, what direction the pond lies, how sheltered it is, how deep is it from the top down to the water, etc. For example a gravel pit may be 20 feet from the lip down to the waters edge vs a farm pond where the water is flush with the surrounding slopes. 
Another factor is how much groundwater the pond has, or springs, this may keep it from freezing until last and then being the first ones to thaw. 
If a pond gets frozen, with say 4" of ice, then it snows on top of it and the wind blows the snow off, it will continue to freeze, if the snow stays on top of the ice, it will not freeze anymore since freezing occurs from the surface down. Snow is like an insulator. thus is it in a windy area or sheltered? 

Best bet is to make mental noteds on which are snow free, they usually freeze first and have the deepest ice throughout the season.

I hope this help but there are hundreds of reasons why some ponds are free of ice and others are not.

Salmonid


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

The ones with ice cover are colder.


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