Update:  December 2022 saw a warming trend, and Lake Tomah was mostly ice free for several weeks. A cold snap refroze the Lake on December 18, 2022. Several ice shacks are up and a dozen or so tents set up every day.

Lake Tomah froze over on Friday, November 18, 2022. We have kept track of the dates Lake Tomah froze and thawed since we moved to Tomah in 1973. We have a picture window view of the  north end of Lake Tomah, just across from Butts Park; a view of the old hospital, the dam, and the steeple of St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

In the nearly 50 years that we have lived in Tomah, the earliest Lake Tomah froze was November 8, 2019, and the latest was December 21, 2001.

As for thawing: The earliest thaw was March 6, 2000 and the latest thaw was April 26, 2013.  The year 2007 was a strange one. Some really warm days thawed the ice out on January 6, but the Lake dutifully refroze on January 11.

There were a few years following the mid-August 1990 flood when there was no Lake. The dam and levee gave way.