122 RESCUED FROM DRIFTING ICE FLOE ON LAKE IN MINN.

Group that was ice fishing retrieved by boat, airboat

More than 100 people were evacuated from an ice floe that broke away from the shoreline and began drifting into a lake in northern Minnesota on Friday night, the latest in a series of incidents on thinner-thanusual ice during a historically warm December for the state.

The 122 people, who were fishing at Upper Red Lake, were taken safely back to land via boat and airboat within three hours of the distress call, the Beltrami County Sheriff ’s Office said, after they were unexpectedly stranded on a large sheet of floating ice, referred to as a floe.

Authorities received an emergency call shortly before 5 p.m. that the fishers were stranded “with over 30 feet of open water separating them from shore,” Sheriff Jason Riggs said in a news release. Bystanders attempted a rescue using a canoe before first responders arrived, and four people fell into the water during the attempt, Riggs said. There were no injuries.

It was the second winter in a row with a significant stranding event on Red Lake, an ice fishing tourism destination in a rural part of the state’s north, covering more than 400 square miles. About 200 anglers were rescued in a November 2022 incident, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

The Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office had warned on social media Thursday that ice was thinner than could usually be expected. “Widespread rain, wind and unseasonably warm weather during recent days have degraded ice conditions throughout the state,” it said, citing the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

There had been multiple instances of recreational vehicles, fish houses and wheelhouses — portable shelters used for ice fishing — falling through ice in recent days, it said.

About 35 people were rescued from stranding on a breakaway ice chunk Dec. 17 at Red Lake. Two days later, a light plane landed on ice and broke through into open water. The occupants weren’t injured, but they had to abandon the plane to be retrieved later, law enforcement said.

“Most years, the ice would be thick enough by now for vehicles and wheelhouses, and we’d be seeing a steady procession of them heading north,” Riggs, the sheriff, said Thursday. “But this year isn’t ‘most years.’”

The same day as the warning, two men fell through the ice on an all-terrain vehicle. They were able to get out of the water without injury.

“Glad everyone is safe tonight, but our responders need a break,” the sheriff ’s office said on social media Friday night after the latest incident, in a post expressing hope for colder weather.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Friday that this month “featured an extraordinary combination of warmth, wetness, and snowlessness.”

It was the hottest Christmas Day on record around the Twin Cities, according to the National Weather Service, and the Minnesota Ice Festival, scheduled for January, has been canceled.

The Department of Natural Resources pointed to El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean keeping cold air masses locked about 1,000 to 2,000 miles to the north in Canada.