Lake Padden gets icy, but now ‘it’s dangerous as heck’

Lake Padden was beginning to freeze Tuesday, Dec. 28, but the thin ice isn’t safe, said Nicole Oliver, director of the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department.

“Once it gets solid, we’ll get people out there. But it’s not now and it’s dangerous as heck,” Oliver told The Bellingham Herald.

Ice forms on Lake Padden when Whatcom County gets several days of below-freezing temperatures.

It froze most recently in 2017.

Bellingham started to see sub-freezing temperatures this year on Christmas, Saturday, Dec. 25.

As of Tuesday morning, there was surface ice on the lake near the shoreline and ice covering the east end of the lake near the softball fields, but not enough to support a person or even a dog.

Though the lake was not frozen, a handful of people were enjoying the winter landscape, either running or walking on trails in the area, cross country skiing or even sledding on the small hill at the lake’s east end.

This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 12:55 PM.