Ice going bad on our lakes?

We are having a strange thing happening on our local lakes.We’ve had good ice (6 in ) then we got about 14 in of snow with very cold temp.As low as -18 .The temp hasn’t been above 20 for 3 weeks.Well the ice on our lakes has about 2 to 4 in of slush and water on them.The top freezes at night and forms a hard layer which you break through walking on.How can this be happening with such cold temps?The ice is getting pretty rotten down to about 3 to 4 in.I have never seen this before and wondered if someone can tell me whats happening with it.

Where do you live? The snow insulates the ice. but that is weird that you are losing ice unless there is moving water or springs.

The snow is insulating the ice- the ice sits on the water- which isn’t frozen so it is getting eaten away from underneath- with that much sno cover the cold can’t get through to make more ice-

I’ve seen this a lot in years of heavy snow. The Snow/slush insulates the ice & water beneath. Plus the weight of the snow will push down the ice and force water up through preasure cracks, holes, or any way it can releive the pressure. When you drill a hole, is the water line rising above the ice? I’ve been on lake where you drill a hole and it looks more like a spring bubbling up in the hole. Not too uncommon.

The snow is pushing the Ice below the water line and insulating it from the cold air, and the water is warmer (32-39 deg) than the Ice (less than 32 deg) so it starts to melt.
just like the Ice in a drink it gets soft and forms elongate air bubbles in the decaying ice,
and as the bond between ice grains melts and water drains through the ice cover it leaves an unbonded aggregate of grains ( weak Ice ), its the same thing as in the spring when it melts, only the heat is coming from the water and not the sun and air

wow that was a lot of work to say its melting

I live in southern MI.Yes the water is coming up through the holes.I talked to a friend of mine thats a roofer and he said that its the snow insulating the ice and the water is warmer under the ice and melting it from below.The same thing happens on the roofs when we get lots of snow with no wind.We haven’t had wind to blow the snow off. Thanks for all your answers.Looks like my fishing season could end sooner than I expected.

Same Problem in my area. The good thing here though is that we had about 14 to 16 inches of good ice before the snow started. We have had anywhere from 10 to 15 inches of slush on most of our lakes with several inches of snow on top of the slush….. I have been hoping for a warm snap to melt a bunch of the snow so that the slush could freeze…but more likely the ice will rot before that happens and fishing will be over for the winter…..I sure hope not though…I bought a new auger and a new marcum flasher the 1st of the year and havent’ been able to use it much yet

Welcome to IDO. Looking forward to some reports/pics from our friends to the east!