Why Are There More Spider Holes Showing Up On Minnesota Lakes This Year?

I finally was able to get out ice fishing last week in the St. Louis River harbor in Duluth. It's a pretty good walleye spot, and they've been biting pretty well off Park Point. This has been a really mild winter, and ice conditions have been sketchy at best.

Last Wednesday I went out with a friend and we tested the ice. We did have almost a foot of ice, but it was ice that had frozen, melted, and frozen, making it weak. We did notice these strange-looking holes everywhere.

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I don't remember ever seeing anything like it, so I looked it up online, figuring there had to be an explanation. These holes had refrozen, but it makes you feel a little uneasy walking on them.

Rainy Winter Can Cause It

There are a few explanations for how this can happen. For this instance, the most likely situation was how it froze, melted, rained, and then froze again. The ice melted enough to create a hole, then the rain on top of it caused it to spread out like a spider web and then it froze over again. Or, it could be some other weird stuff happening.

Related: Hidden Dangers Of Shelf Ice In Minnesota + Wisconsin

Warmer Water Rising Up

In some cases, warmer water could come up to the surface and that could lead to these shapes forming.

Decaying Vegetation?

Another thing could be decaying weeds or gas bubbles rising to the surface. It does happen. Last year a giant one formed on a Lake in Minnesota from this.