After a week-long respite thanks to a deep freeze, lake ice is becoming unstable once again around Minnesota as temperatures return to unnatural levels.
The end of December and start of January were punctuated by a multitude of lake ice rescues and accidents – several of them fatal – as unseasonal warmth limited ice growth on Minnesota’s lakes.
And that seems to be the case once again as temps returned above freezing this week, with the latest rescue taking place Thursday evening on Lake Jennie in Collinwood Township, about 45 miles west of the Twin Cities metro.
The Meeker County Sheriff’s Office says two men, a 64-year-old from Hutchinson and an 18-year-old from Dassel, broke throughj the ice while fishing on Lake Jennie, in Collinwood Township.
They were able to make it back to a landing with no injuries, but a boy was also left stranded on the lake due to dense fog, and was found by Litchfield and Dassel rescue teams using an airboat. He was not injured.
The sheriff’s office has urged the public to “exercise due diligence before going out on the ice.”