So how much will snow cool down the lakes?, ...and 100+cm of it?

Agreed. At one point, I saw that Tuesday was suppose to get up to 6oC here but now, it's changed again and not as much rain as was forecasted before but always some bits of snow here and there. The bay I had mentioned earlier has even more ice (expanded to almost double the distance from shore but covered with snow still). The access point from where I have gone out (and used by others on this board) only has about 5-10 ft of slushy ice at the shorelines but the water looks very cold...it's got that really "thick" dense feel to it so hoping that the minus double digits (and hopefully calm) nights after this warm spell will put a good layer of ice onto the lake quickly before any more crazy snow falls.

Thanks for the update. Sounds like we are looking at an early start (compared with last winter, that is:-) Cheers

This was yesterday. Possibly the day before I don’t remember. Near Haliburton. Lake is about 30ft deep. Ice is about 0.5-1” with soupy slush on top up to 6” slush. Good news is that the snow we just got soaked up the water and turned gray and if we get a cold snap tonight will instantly turn into 6” gray ice… which is good as long as it stays cold. Other lakes in the area didn’t slush up the same so they are still insulated by snow or wide open water still.

Unfortunately we got even more snow overnight (only 10cm) but at least it was nice and crispy cold this morning.

That looks promising!

Yep, it all looks promising but we have been getting quite a bit of snow even after the massive snow squall event...I have lost track of each event now but I think we are getting close to 250cm (all told so far this winter) since the snow began to fall on Nov. 27. I have been clearing snow off the driveway, around the house and off the roof (and then clearing that away from the house in preparation for the next round of snow that has been come down off the roof, etc., etc.). But I did pass a few medium sized lakes and saw that some were completely iced over (lots of snow on top) but have no idea for how long they have been iced over and how thick of course but it was not just slush on top of water. A small warm spell and then we maybe getting down towards -20oC at night next week as well (-10oC now).