With both Manitoba Public Insurance and Lifesaving Society Manitoba putting out an ice thickness advisory earlier this month, the society’s water safety coordinator spoke to Arctic Radio about it.

 

Doctor Christopher Love stressed the importance of checking ice thickness before heading out onto a frozen body of water, as dozens of vehicles break through thin ice around this time of year.

 

Love says while no ice is without some risk, there are optimal ice conditions people should look out for.

 

"We would love to see what is considered a calm, multi day, consistent freeze in order to give you good ice to go out on. So that usually means two or three days, consistently cold temperatures below minus ten with no breeze or snow. Those give you great ice formation conditions. Once that’s occurred, you’ve got what we would call new, clear, hard ice. It’s frozen solid, there aren’t many air bubbles and it’s very good for bearing weight."

 

Love adds people going out on frozen waterways should have a floatation device on them, never go out alone, and make sure to let someone know where you’re going and when you plan to be back.

 

Hear the full interview on Thompson Today at 12:40 and 5:10 this afternoon.