Minnesota's warmer weather this week brings a warning from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department Water Patrol: swim at your own risk.
"The water is still very cold, and hypothermia can still set in," says Lieutenant Rick Rehman.
The same holds true for boaters and kayakers. He says it's important to make sure you have lifejackets handy, and that it's mandatory for children 10 and under to wear one.
Rehman says while the weather has been nice lately, the water hasn't really caught up yet.
"The kids are in the water right now. The water is still very cold so people have to be safe," Rehman explains. "Know that the water is still cold and dangerous."
The warning comes on the heels of two incidents in the state this past weekend.
A 15-year-old boy from Mountain Lake is dead after drowning in southern Minnesota Sunday afternoon. The Brown County Sheriff's Office says the boy had been swimming off the beach at Mound Creek County Park when he began to struggle and went under the water around 3:30 p.m.
He was eventually pulled from the water but pronounced dead shortly afterwards. The boy's name hasn't been released.
Meanwhile, search efforts are expected to resume at Nest Lake in northern Kandiyohi County after a kayaker went missing there over the weekend.
The sheriff's office there says it learned yesterday that a 39-year-old man from Overland Park, Kansas had left alone in a kayak from his vacation rental on Saturday and never returned. That kayak was found Sunday just before 1:30 in the afternoon.
So far, there's been no update on the search for the man.