LAKE CITY, Minn. – The Army Corps of Engineers, which controls navigation on the Mississippi River, plans to send out its global positioning-equipped airboat on February 11 to collect the first 2025 data on Lake Pepin ice thickness. The Corps uses 20-some sites to track the ever-shifting ice floes. The data help point to a date when ice is thin enough for barges to plow through . Historically the average date is the third week of March. Last year the first barges went through on March 17.
Lake Pepin. On Minnesota-Wiscosin border. The 20-mile navigation path through the Mississippi River lake. Dots are GPS checkpoints.