Ice forming on Ohio River this week, but no major navigation issues

Ice has been forming along parts of the Ohio River this week during the dangerously cold conditions. 

The Cave-in-Rock ferry has been closed since last Sunday after ice chunks on the river caused difficult navigation.

Pictures from the Evansville/Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency's downtown riverfront tower cam show large chunks of ice floating and collecting along the north shore.

At Cincinnati, sheets of ice have been floating downstream since last week. The Anderson ferry closed, and riverfront spectators could hear thunderous sounds from barges crashing through the ice.

Traffic along the river has not faced any "unexpected closures or impacts to navigation" amid consecutive days of sub-freezing temperatures in the Ohio Valley region, according to a statement Wednesday by the Louisville district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A total freeze-over of the river is unlikely as the duration of subfreezing temperatures will not be long enough this year. Meteorologists have said it takes at least three weeks of sustained, extreme cold to completely freeze the surface of the wide and deep Ohio.

Seasoned citizens in our region can remember the last time the river froze signigicantly was back in 1977 with many January days below zero. Before that, a historical marker in downtown Paducah recounts when people and vehicles ventured onto the river in 1938.

Paducah's River Discovery Center notes that in 1918 "ice gorges" and an ice dam caused  14 steamboats and barges to sink at Paducah. Other notable years when ice was thick enough to halt barge travel and allow pedestrians on portions of the river was in 1936 and 1963.


Photos: Ohio River at Cave-in-Rock (Crittenden County Emergency Management); at Evansville (Evansville/Vanderburgh County Emergency Management); Anderson ferry at Cincinnat (Anderson ferry Facebook); historical photo at Cincinnati in 1977 (Old Photos of Cincinnati Facebook)