"This was probably the strangest lake ice-in season I can remember since I started working here 25 years ago, just seeing open water in January on some of the bigger lakes in the Twin Cities was very unusual."
DNR climatologist Pete Boulay said that to MPR News in January 2024. Most Minnesota lakes had frozen in late November and then melted in a record-warm December. Into January, Lake Minnetonka still hadn't frozen over, even though some of its bays had. That winter shows how freeze-up works on this lake. A bay can freeze while the main lake stays open, and the lake doesn't count as frozen until the whole surface is covered and the ice has stayed. The official freeze date gets written down after the fact. Everything Wayzata plans on the bay for winter depends on that date.
The Date Only Counts If the Ice Stays
The Minnesota DNR keeps Lake Minnetonka's freeze-up record through its LakeFinder ice report. For the citizen observers who report to the state, ice-in is "when the entire lake is frozen over for the first time and the ice cover remains through winter." Observers don't report ice thickness.
The definition looks back in time. A skim of ice in late November becomes the freeze date only if December doesn't melt it. That makes the record a list of dates that held up.
Here is what the record shows. Over 54 observations from 1978 to 2025, the median ice-in date is December 8. The earliest is November 25, 1996. The ten most recent entries on the DNR's table:
| Winter | Ice-in date recorded |
|---|---|
| 2025-26 | December 7, 2025 |
| 2024-25 | December 12, 2024 |
| 2022-23 | December 8, 2022 |
| 2021-22 | December 8, 2021 |
| 2020-21 | December 24, 2020 |
| 2019-20 | December 2, 2019 |
| 2018-19 | November 28, 2018 |
| 2017-18 | December 14, 2017 |
| 2016-17 | December 15, 2016 |
| 2014-15 | November 27, 2014 |
The last two winters landed close to the median: December 12 in 2024 and December 7 last year. Even so, those ten entries run from late November to Christmas Eve.
The state also holds this year's date back on purpose. The DNR doesn't post current-year ice-in dates in real time, and its 2026 ice-in map still says data isn't available yet. Observers report the lake, county and date to the State Climatology Office, and the date goes into the record from there.
The bay will be open for Wayzata's first winter event of the season. Light Up the Lake is Friday, November 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. on Lake Street. The Wayzata Firefighter's Parade of Lights starts at 5:45 p.m., and the town lighting at Panoway Plaza follows right after. That's five days before the earliest freeze-up on record, so in every year of the record the lake had not frozen over by November 20.
The Winter the Ice Came and Went
The 2023-24 winter is missing from the table above. The table goes from 2022 straight to 2024. That season shows why the definition matters:
- Late November 2023. Boulay told MPR that most Minnesota lakes froze over around November 28 or 29, from north to south.
- December 2023. The warmest December on record melted that ice. Boulay told MPR he was keeping two sets of data to account for it.
- Mid-January 2024. The Star Tribune reported that Lake Minnetonka's bays had frozen while the main lake was still open.
- January 13, 2024. Lake Minnetonka froze over. Boulay told MPR that beat the old record by 11 days. The previous latest freeze-up was January 2, 2002.
Across the state, lakes froze in late November that season, and Lake Minnetonka's official freeze-up didn't come until January 13. On Lake Minnetonka, the bays froze before the main lake did, which is why the view from a dock on Wayzata Bay isn't always the lake's official status.
What Waits on the Bay
A late freeze changes what happens on and around the bay.
The clearest example is the Chilly Open, the golf-on-ice event the Wayzata West Metro Chamber holds on Wayzata Bay. The 2024 edition, scheduled for Saturday, February 10, was listed as canceled in the city's weekly update of January 28, 2024. KSTP reported that a pressure ridge at the Wayzata Beach access had left 4 to 6 inches of open water sitting above the ice, which made setup unsafe. That was the same winter the lake didn't freeze over until January 13. The Sun Sailor later covered the event's return in 2025 after a year off, noting the ice had been too thin for safe use in 2024.
At full size, the event is a lot to put on a frozen bay. For 2026, Wayzata.com previewed a 41st Chilly Open, set for Saturday, February 7. The plan included four nine-hole courses, more than 2,000 participants, snowga, a chili cookoff, live music and after-parties downtown.
The warmth that delayed the freeze reached the city's land rinks too. The same January 28, 2024 city update reported the Klapprich rink closed because of exceptionally warm weather. Two weeks earlier, the city said crews were flooding the Klapprich field and Margaret Circle Park for skating, but the rinks weren't open to the public yet. Last winter went better. By the city's January 16, 2026 update, the Klapprich Park rinks and warming house were open for skating.
What the State Says About Thickness
The DNR's ice-in date says nothing about whether ice will hold weight. The DNR says it doesn't measure lake ice, and that checking conditions is up to the people going out on it. Its ice thickness guidelines apply to new, clear ice:
- 4 inches: on foot
- 5 to 7 inches: snowmobile or small ATV
- 9 to 10 inches: small car or SUV
- 11 to 12 inches: medium SUV or small truck
- 13 inches: medium truck
- 16 to 17 inches: heavy-duty truck
The DNR says white ice is about half as strong as clear ice, so those numbers double for it. On its ice formations page, the DNR calls pressure ridges dangerous. It also lists flowing water, areas under bridges, and ice near docks and other structures as hazards. A pressure ridge is what flooded the Chilly Open setup at Wayzata Beach in 2024.
The Lake Minnetonka Conservation District's winter safety tips add lake-specific practices. They say to check thickness every 150 feet, keep vehicles at least 150 feet apart and move them every two hours, and never water-skip a motorized vehicle. They also note that most special events on the lake need a permit.
Spring Gets an Exact Time
The two ends of winter on Lake Minnetonka get recorded differently. Freeze-up is a citizen observation reported to the state and published later. Ice-out comes with a timestamp. This year, Wayzata.com reported that Freshwater and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Water Patrol declared ice-out at 5:38 p.m. on April 3, once a patrol boat could get through the bays and channels without hitting hard ice.
The spring record is also much older. The DNR's ice-out series for Lake Minnetonka has 269 observations going back to 1855, with a median of April 12. Its freeze-up series starts in 1978. The last four springs came on March 13, 2024, March 29, 2025 and April 3, 2026, all before that median, and on April 19, 2023, after it.
In a winter that tracks the median, about four weeks separate Light Up the Lake on November 20 from Lake Minnetonka's typical December 8 freeze-up. The freeze date only gets recorded if the ice is still there through the rest of the winter.
We follow Wayzata Bay through the seasons the same way we follow the market, one date at a time. If a winter on the water is part of what you're weighing for your next home on Lake Minnetonka, Avenues & Acres Home Team can walk you through the lakeshore questions. Request Your Free Concierge Consultation.
