re: WISSA event
I spoke with some of the pond hockey participants tonight and have also had direct reports from ice boaters today. They said the pond hockey event is moved to Chain Lake (which is literally right next to the original site of Moran Bay). They mentioned there were concerns with the stabiltiy of the ice with so many people being out at Green Island. It might still be rideable there, but maybe not ideal for the event (?).
There is generally a lack of snow for the events that like snow, but there should be plenty of ice. I might head up there next weekend with the hockey troops and will give a first hand report of I get up there. We had some snow last night but the wind was so strong it scrubbed a lot of the snow/or made uneven coverage on lakes.
The WISSA website has not updated this information, so please treat my comments as unconfirmed. I am pretty sure they will run the event one way or another. NOAA and NWS are saying that February will be the coldest month of the winter. A good group of local ice boaters scrambled yesterday and today to sail on several lakes, which had good ice. well south of the Mackinaw Straights.
This is a recent image of ice coverage (rather lack thereof)...but you can see the small lakes are looking hard and this shot was taken several days ago, so ice thickness has only gotten better.
http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/ ... 3.250m.jpg
We've had a substantial and cold North wind the past few days. There may be some snow in SW MI that we might try to poach tomorrow...some spots getting 10" of lake effect. Lake MI is still competely open water!