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A lake that froze every winter for a century stayed open
Records kept by a village school since 1924 show the first winter without ice. Scientists say one year is not a trend; the records say the trend started long ago.
Science correspondent
6 min read
The ice used to arrive in early January. Last winter it never came.
Every winter since 1924, the teacher at the village school has written down the day the lake froze. Last winter the column stayed empty.
The notebook is now one of the longest continuous records of its kind in the region.
A school notebook as a dataset
Researchers checked the handwritten dates against weather records and found them reliable to within a day or two. The freeze has moved three weeks later since the 1950s.
One open winter is weather. Seventy years of later freezes is something else.
The lake still freezes most years, but for shorter periods. The ice fishing club has cancelled its competition four times in ten years.
Who keeps the record now
The current teacher has passed the notebook to her pupils. They also measure water temperature, with a thermometer the university lent them.
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Leo Hartmann
Science correspondent
Leo writes about research, researchers and the long road from lab to headline.
