See how winter air temperatures determine the date on which Sylvan Lake becomes free of ice in April or May. There’s no surprise: Cold winters mean thicker ice and a later ice-free date.
Ice-free dates (the red arrows) are from the archives of SLWSS Director Susan Samson.
Graphics were created using the Alberta Agriculture Weather Data Viewer for the station at Hespero, just west of Sylvan Lake. The blue reference line is the long-term temperature record. The red lines are the temperature histories for each of the years between 2013 and 2017.