DELMARVA PENINSULA – After more than two weeks of below-average temperatures on the Delmarva Peninsula, Wednesday brought a welcomed warm up.
With highs in the low 50s today, ice-covered waterways thawed, allowing certain operations to resume a semblance of normalcy.
Chopper 16 was overhead as the Cape May-Lewes Ferry traveled across an unobstructed stretch of water.
In Crisfield, Maryland’s Eddie Somers ice-breaking vessel took advantage of the softened ice to clear around the city dock.
Paul Emely parked at the dock, hoping to watch the boats come and go between Smith and Tangier Islands. Despite the warm-up, they did not come today.
"I'll come down here to the depot and watch them every so often. I have a lot of friends on Smith Island, some I went to school with,” Emely said, recalling worse freezes from the 1970s.
Parts of Chincoteague Bay were also heavily affected by ice over the past few weeks.
Oyster harvesters like Dan Worrell of Fallen Pines Oyster Company said their work does not stop during a deep freeze.
"For the first time ever, we ice fished for oysters,” Worrell said. “We actually walked out on the ice, broke a hole in the ice and fished the cages out of the ice hole."
Nearly all of Fallen Pines’ oyster cages were impacted by the ice. Worrell and his employees used the warmer weather on Wednesday to assess the damage.
The warm relief may be short-lived. WBOC Meteorologist John Conway expects chilly temperatures to end the week before another warm-up brings the potential for rain.