Earlier this week I called Tom Hoverstad scientist at the Southern Research and Outreach center at Waseca. About Ten days ago I was talking with Tom about the cold weather we suffered through in April. Tom mentioned that it looked like the latest ice out date on Clear Lake in Waseca would be broken this year. The Southern Research and Outreach Center has weather data going back more than 100 years. The latest ice out date for Clear lake was set on April 27, 1951.

Ice out on Clear lake occurred on April 29, 2018. That is another weather record broken this year. Other records set in April, the most snow at 22.9 inches, the coldest ever by 4 degrees. Tom did mention one "bright side" to the weather in April. It was continuously cold. We did not see a few nice days when overwintering crops like alfalfa would break dormancy, begin to green up and then be damaged by really cold temperatures again.

It was 2013 when we saw April weather go back and forth from really warm to really cold. That was the year much of the alfalfa was killed. It overwintered fine but was killed in the spring. I believe that was also the year that apple trees were flowering and were damaged by a late freeze. The trees survived but when the flower is killed there will be no apples!

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