Led by Dr. Sapna Sharma at York University, Ontario, we published long-term ice phenology records spanning up to 578 years for 78 lakes around the Northern Hemisphere. These phenomenal records extend before the start of the Industrial Revolution. For example, two lakes that I work with regularly and helped provide the data for are Mohonk Lake (New York) which has ice on and off records dating back to 1932 and Lake Sunapee (New Hampshire) which has ice off records dating back to 1869. Both of those records have been collected consistently in partnership with particular families that live on or near the lakes and have collected these records across generations. The Smiley family recorded the Mohonk Lake ice on and off dates in conjunction with owning and operating the Mohonk Mountain House. The Osborne family defined the ice off date on Lake Sunapee as the day first possible to navigate a boat from north end of the lake to the south end. Another example is Lake Suwa in Japan – the ice record for Lake Suwa was started in 1443 by a family of Shinto priest and has continued since then.
The data for these lakes and many others are available through our publication in the journal ‘scientific data’ here. 