About 15 cars sank into the water in Lake Geneva, Wis., about 50 miles southeast of Milwaukee, Saturday — a warm winter day where the main attraction was supposed to be the town’s Winterfest and the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Competition.
No one was injured, but 10 of the 15 cars are believed to be a total loss, according a Fox News television station in Milwaukee. The other five could be driven away.
Midwesterners sometimes park on frozen lakes, and according to one press report, motorists were being directed to park on Lake Geneva Saturday.
Born and raised on the East Coast. We moved to Minneapolis around 1980.
It never ceases to amaze us the Midwestern people who think nothing of driving / snowmobiling on lakes. You can regularly read about these fatalities. Some, an entire family.
Obvious Stupidity
Lack of sufficient ice on the lake to hold the weight of the cars is obviously due to the short term weather and could be due to a long term climate trend of some sort, who knows.
Lack of planning on the part of the organizers – not checking the thickness of the ice regardless of the weather or climate trends – definitely stupidity.
I am sorry- I would not give one flipping shit how thick the ice was or was not- I would never drive an automobile onto a lake.
As Dutchman said it has been a common practice in the Midwest for many years to drive or park on ice covered lakes. If you know what you are doing it is a very safe practice. When I was growing up my father would sometimes drive our big old station wagon on to the ice when we were ice fishing to give us a comfortable place to sit and warm up. BUT he would only do it after drilling at least one test hole to make sure that the ice was thick enough to hold the car. You also have to be aware of any currents and springs in the lake which could weaken the ice in specific spots.
I’m not in the Midwest now, but if the weather there earlier this winter was anything like we were getting on the east coast I wouldn’t even walk on the ice – it was way too warm for way too long to develop a decent thickness of ice.
When you think the Climate Astrologers have gone off the deep end, they come out with new and bizarre fear-mongering:
Pure stupidity.
Does this mean the ice is only on the top of the lake?
Gee wiz, bet most people thought the lake froze right to the bottom
Just how does this piece dis-prove Globul Warming?
It doesn’t dis-prove global warming.
It actually shows in real time that global warming is speeding up.
I would bet that when those vehicles were parked, they were on ice.
In a manner of hours the lake melted and the cars started to sink in the water.
That is accelerated global warming.
From this very real model, I predict New York city will be under water by the end of February.
We routinely run all kinds of stuff on frozen lakes and rivers in AK. Check the ice thickness first. Rivers are tricky-ice thickness varies depending on the currents. One of the key facts is that strength of ice is time dependent-often you can safely cross, but not park.
Stupidity may have been the reason for this ( I mean, parking on a frozen lake at the best of times is not a particularly bright idea ) however, let me pose another assumption. Having watched all the Land Whales endlessly driving around Walmart parking lots in order to get a parking space 5 feet closer to the door ( thereby saving their knees and ankles from having to support their enormous heft ) I’m pretty sure the reason for parking on the ice rather than dry land was for the same reason. Pure laziness. If the average 300 pounder could get away with driving INTO Walmart or the mall, they would do it in a heartbeat.
I’m going with global warming. Heh.
I’m going with they do not take into account the Sun’s energy output . You know, low and high energy states of the Friggen sun ? lol Muander minimum or maximum etc , whatever
It is just a taxing scheme