"Although ice covered the Chetek Chain of Lakes for more than a month longer than it did in 2017, open water finally replaced the ice sheets on Lake Chetek on Tuesday, May 1—the official ice-out date of 2018. Last year’s ice-out date of March 30 was one of the earliest ice-out dates in recent times; however, the earliest on record is March 23 and the latest on record is May 6, according to The Chetek Alert records."