Lake Minnetonka was officially declared ice-out at 5:38 p.m. on Friday, April 3, after Freshwater and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol determined a patrol boat could safely navigate the lake’s bays and channels without being stopped by hard ice.
The annual milestone came 10 days earlier than the lake’s median ice-out date of April 13, though it was slightly later than last year, when open water was declared on March 29, 2025.
On Lake Minnetonka, ice-out is observed when a boat can safely travel from shore to shore, through channels, and around islands across the 14,528-acre lake. The observation system dates back to the 1960s, when Freshwater founder Dick Gray developed a consistent method for tracking the event.
Ice-out records on Lake Minnetonka go back to 1855, making the annual declaration both a seasonal marker and a long-running data point for tracking environmental patterns over time. The earliest ice-out on record was March 11, 1878.
Freshwater noted that methods for declaring ice-out vary from lake to lake, but consistency from year to year is what matters most for long-term recordkeeping. According to the organization, many lakes in southern Minnesota also opened slightly earlier than normal this year.
For Wayzata and communities around the lake, the declaration is one of the clearest signs that winter has finally given way to boating season, shoreline walks, and the return of open-water lake life. Historically, Lake Minnetonka has long been central to the region’s identity, with Wayzata’s lakeshore serving for generations as a gateway to the water and to spring itself.
Observed with the water patrol on Friday were Freshwater Operations Coordinator Alison Nesler, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol Deputy Tom Pierson, and Melissa McNeil of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Foundation.
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