Hello LSC, here is an article from the Boston Globe: Are record ice-outs an alarm? ‘Our concern is for our Earth.’

It talks about lakes in Vermont and New Hampshire that experienced their record earliest ice outs in 2024, and the impact that has on the ecosystem of the lake.

Based on our records, our March 7th ice out is the earliest, going back to our records which started in 1933. The previous earliest was in 2012 on March 13th. The shortest amount of ice coverage was in 2010 when the ice didn't set until Feb, and went out on Mar 20th.

In the article Mark Mitchell, a freshwater scientist and partner for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and the University of Vermont Lake Champlain Sea Grant, who we work with on the Lay Monitoring Program for LSC, talks about how early melts and warmer water mean a longer period for plant growth and the proliferation of invasive species (like milfoil) and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms.

To read more on this topic:

> In 2022, Mark wrote about this topic for the Spring 2022 edition of the Federation of Vermont Lakes and Ponds Newsletter in this article: Lake Ice-Out and Ice-In in Vermont.

He goes into more detail, and it also includes a chart of LSC's ice out going back to 1933.

> This weekend at the Giant Map event in Wells, educator Meghan Hill from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum gave attendees this presentation: Climate Change and our Lakes.