Lake City, MN (KROC-AM News) - In an annual rite of the approaching spring, a team from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers went out on the ice covering Lake Pepin this week and took measurements of the ice as part of the agency’s process of preparing from the upcoming shipping season.

They found the ice is not nearly as thick as it was a year ago. The thickest ice was located about 3-miles south of Lake City and was measured at 17-inches. Most of the ice on the south end of the lake was 14 to 15 inches thick and it vanished from the river channel to the north at Frontenac State Park.

A year ago, the ice thickness on the south end of Lake Pepin was mainly over 20-inches and eventually grew to over 2-feet thick in some areas. The first of measurements in February 2019 also found 9-inch thick ice as far north as Frontenac.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning for another round of measurements on the lake next Wednesday.

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