For the second March in a row, Scituate, Massachusetts, fishermen are using their boats to break harbor ice to keep fishing.
For the second March in a row, Scituate, Massachusetts, fishermen are using their boats to break harbor ice to keep fishing.
Captain Jared Karlberg has been using his boat the Mildred to break the ice for the last two months. His boat is rate for see clamming this winter but you can't go clamming if your boat is locked in the ice.
"This is the first year since I've been fishing then I had over a month with no fishing because of the ice," Karlberg said.
More ice is caused by warmer water in the Pacific ocean causing a ridge of high pressure that is making Alaska warmer, and a downstream trough with one cold air mass after another from the north pole into the eastern United States, especially New England. It's been one of the coldest Februarys on record and it generated sea ice like most of not seen in a lifetime.
In Wellfleet, Massachusetts, low tides left ice bergs 10 to 15 feet thick laying on the flats. Of course the ice has to melt eventually so what kind of shape will the beaches be in the summer?
Every storm is it's own character. In the 2015 January blizzard, the wind was from the north so the deeper water north of Longledge allowed 10 to 20 foot waves to scour the sand from the north side and deliver it to the south side. The sand built a ramp right up to the top of the seawall that allowed waves to come right up into these homes.
So our beaches will be rearranged, but they'll be there. As for warm water to swim in? It may take a wile. While the near sure water temperatures are close to freezing, the water a couple hundred miles out is warmer than normal, which partially explains why we also had the snowiest winter on record.
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Much like last year the water will be slow to warm. But by July 4, no matter what the water temperature or the state of the beaches, we will flock to the shore, and it cannot come fast enough.
