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February 16, 2012

Otsego Lake has yet to freeze

BY JIM AUSTIN

THE COOPERSTOWN CRIER

Usually by this point in the winter Otsego Lake is covered with ice and fishermen, but a warmer than normal winter has kept the lake open.

Matt Albright, the Assistant to the Director of the Biological Field Station, said Tuesday that the lake has gotten close to freezing over, but then the wind blows or the sun shines and open water remains.

“We had a pretty good chunk of open water north of five mile point all winter,” he said. “Water doesn’t freeze when the wind blows.”

Albright said there is still a chance the lake will close, but we’ve passed the coldest part of the winter and it would take lower temperatures for it to happen.

“I wouldn’t put money on it either way,” he said.

Records indicate the average date for closing is in the first week of January. Albright said he doesn’t believe there would be any negative impacts on lake and the life in it from not freezing over.

“There’s not much that I can imagine,” he said.

In more than 150 years of recordkeeping, there has been only one winter when the lake did not close and that was in the last decade, Albright said.

Asked if he believes it could be the result of global climate change, Albright replied, “Twice in about a decade after 150 years makes you wonder.”

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