Freeze and Thaw on The Gatineau River

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Freeze and Thaw on the Gatineau River

The Gatineau River January 7, 2007

Since 1995 we have recorded the date that the Gatineau River completely freezes for the last time, and the date the river is open enough for a boat to go all the way up the center of the river. On average the river freezes December 25th and thaws April 6th but the freeze-up date is much more varied than the break-up day. The length of time the river is frozen each winter is even more variable. The longest, 129 days in 1992 is more than twice as long as the 58 frozen days in 2002. It is intriguing to note that the longest freeze was 12 years ago at the beginning of our recordkeeping, but looking at the table and chart it is hard to say there is a trend towards shorter winters – at least not yet!

[edit] Gatineau River Statistics

Season	Freeze-up	Break-up	Days frozen
1995/1996	12/06/95	04/13/96	129
1996/1997	12/27/96	04/19/97	113
1997/1998	12/09/97	03/31/98	112
1998/1999	12/21/98	04/12/99	112
1999/2000	12/24/99	03/22/00	89
2000/2001	12/11/00	04/11/01	121
2001/2002	02/02/02	04/01/02	58
2002/2003	12/20/02	04/14/03	115
2003/2004	01/09/04	04/03/04	85
2004/2005	12/15/04	04/10/05	116
2005/2006	12/13/05	03/31/06	108
2006/2007	01/21/07	tbd	tbd

Average 25-Dec 6-Apr 105.3

Std. Dev. (Days) 17.7 8.4 20.2