Jamee Markley sat in a beach chair at the edge of the dark water of Wirth Lake in north Minneapolis on Tuesday, keeping a close eye on her sons as they played in the water.
Gavin, 11, and Hunter, 9, have access to a pool at their St. Michael home and know how to swim. Still, even with a lifeguard perched nearby, Markley kept her eyes glued to them.
"You just never know when something could happen," she said. "They could slip and fall and hit their head, and in the water they go. So it's scary."
Such parental caution is well-advised as the long holiday weekend arrives, bringing a stretch of hot, sunny weather the likes of which we haven't seen this year — perfect for hitting the beach or pool.
By this time last year — one in which swimming weather arrived far earlier — Minnesota already had seen 27 drownings, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. By the end of 2012, 40 people had drowned in non-boating incidents in Minnesota.
So far this year, eight people have drowned. The difference is definitely weather-driven, officials say. "When it's a hot summer, we have more drownings; there are more people using water," said Lisa Kiava, spokeswoman for the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.
In Hennepin County, four people have drowned this year, three of them after vehicles broke through ice. There have been none in Ramsey County and one in Washington County, where a snowmobiler plunged into open water in the St. Croix River in February.
'Drowning is silent'