Lakes are losing winter ice at an alarming rate

Just as sea ice and glaciers are melting, the frozen sheet covering the lake is also disappearing. Lake ice loss has accelerated over the past 25 years, with lakes in the Northern Hemisphere melting an average of 45 days earlier than they did 100 years ago.

“The loss of ice in freshwater systems has social, environmental, and economic impacts,” says Stephanie Hampton of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.

Scientists have only recently…