The decline in ice cover on lakes has been an early warning for the onset of today’s climate change. Records of ice-on and ice-off dates and the duration of ice cover were commonly kept by citizens over the last 50 to 150 years often prior to the establishment of weather stations. These records allow us to visualize lake ice in the context of change that occurred over decades to centuries. One Shinto Shrine record began in the 1400s in Japan. Ice records allow us to see what has been happening not only to our lake, or Wisconsin lakes, but to lakes around the Northern Hemisphere. Declines already have affected human uses of winter lake ice. Several lakes in Wisconsin experience winters without complete ice cover; such winters are forecast to become more common in Wisconsin’s future. Declines in ice has increased winter drownings, and has decreased days for winter fishing, festivals, skating, iceboating, skiing, walking, and viewing, as well as transportation on winter ice roads. Climate change has been eroding a part of our “sense of place” for those of us who include lake ice in our lives.

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