Lower Merrimack River Ice Report #3

Ice out: this morning the ice had all but disappeared from Point Shores. All that remained was the rime of isles in denial, smallish and almost transparent plates of floating ice waiting for delivery to that infinite Atlantic. After today’s sunshine and temperatures in the forties, the Merrimack will be clear from the Powow River to Black Rocks.

But a stubborn ribbon of ice remains upriver past Pleasant Valley, but for that break near Maudslay Rocks. This January was cold. In the ten years I have lived by this river, I’ve never seen the ice so thick and flat. If I was a betting man, I would have walked across from Amesbury to Newburyport and enjoyed the arctic scenery. But I’m not, so I didn’t. And so I’m here to write this river ice update: look out down below, the ice flows cometh.