"the New England tradition of outdoor skating is on thin ice" Boston Globe article

[Dr Jo]

Thanks to Liz L. for posting this on the Vermont Nordic Skating FB page.

‘A thing of the past’: With warmer winters, the New England tradition of outdoor skating is on thin ice

The window to skate in Vermont is dwindling as the climate changes. “It affects the whole local economy,” one business owner says.

By Erin Douglas Globe Staff,Updated February 17, 2024, 3:49 p.m.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/17/science/lake-morey-ice-skating-climate-change/?p1=BGSearch_Overlay_Results

Not sure if you'll hit a paywall so here's the text. At the link there is a 5 minute video, too

The author does not mention recurring freeze-thaw cycles. One heartbreak of the canceled Lake Champlain Pond Hockey Classic on Malletts Bay was that the ice was stunning skating for quite some time leading up to it, and then skatable the following week.  They started creating the rinks before canceling due to the weekend thaw.

FAIRLEE, Vt., — By 11 a.m. it was about 50 degrees and the thin metal blades fastened to the boots of hopeful ice skaters began to sink rather than glide. Puddles appeared.�It’s February in Vermont. But it doesn’t feel like it on Lake Morey.�“It’s comical to have six inches [of ice] this time of year,” said Mark Avery, 53, the third-generation co-owner of the Lake Morey Resort, about halfway between the Massachusetts border and Canada. There ought to be more than a foot of ice by now, he said.�Avery doubts he’ll be able to bring out the Zamboni this year to smooth the skating surface; it requires around 14 inches of ice to support the weight of the machine.�“That’s a thing of the past,” he said.�Winters are warming twice as fast as summers in northern states, scientists have found. Across New England, this winter is shaping up to be one of the warmest on record, driven by an El Niño weather pattern currently in place and climate change, which has increased average temperatures globally.�In December and January in Vermont, nighttime temperatures were generally around 21 degrees, making those two months the warmest on record in terms of nighttime low temperatures. This year marks the first time in recorded history that there wasn’t any snow on the ground in Burlington, Vt., during the first 12 days of February.�In Fairlee, there hasn’t been the right mix of winter conditions to keep lakes thick with ice for more than just a couple of weeks this year (well-below freezing temperatures and cloudy days are helpful, for example). It’s part of a larger trend that’s getting worse across New England: There are three fewer weeks of freezing conditions in Vermont now than in 1960, according to the state’s climate assessment. Lakes and ponds across the state have been thawing about three days earlier each decade, on average, since 1988.�Vermont’s ski industry, researchers have found, is expected to be less impacted by climate change compared with activities that rely on ice, such as hockey and figure skating.��CLICK TO SEE MORE PHOTOS: Deacon Segit, 5, tested the ice before skating on Lake Morey in Fairlee, Vt.

ERIN CLARK/GLOBE STAFF��“Those sports will probably suffer the most,” said Franni Hoag, a lecturer at the University of Vermont, who authored a chapter on climate impacts to tourism in the state’s climate assessment.�At Lake Morey, that’s become depressingly clear. In 2012, when Avery’s company first began clearing snow off of the lake for a 4-mile ice skating trail, they could count on a good six weeks or more of ice skating weather per year, he said.�And now? It’s about two weeks. The season is shrinking and so are the company’s revenues, which are down about 50 percent this January and February. He can’t schedule normal hours for workers.�“They can’t work … It affects the whole local economy,” Avery said. Lake Morey Resort employs around 50 workers over the winter.�“Having a good winter keeps people employed,” he said.�When there are about 8 inches or more, Avery can use snowblowers and brushes hitched to four-wheel-drive vehicles to clear a skating trail. Last year, Avery waited until late January to make the trail. But this year, the ice isn’t thick enough to bring any equipment out to smooth it over. The best he can do is flood parts of the lake with water so that it freezes over the scratches.�It’s a bumpy solution.�What’s happening on Lake Morey is playing out on lakes all over the region. Pond hockey tournaments across New England — most notably the Lake Champlain Pond Hockey Classic in Burlington — have been forced to cancel events several times over the past decade. The 2024 Pond Hockey Classic was canceled earlier this month due to warm temperatures.�The businesses that rely on such tournaments to bring in tourists are feeling the heat. On Lake Morey, for the 130-room resort, ice skating is not just a good side hustle — it is a major driver of revenue to sustain the business through the winter. Typically, about 80 percent of rooms are booked during February weekends. On this particularly sunny Saturday, though, occupancy was about 35 percent, Avery said.�Pond hockey tournaments can bring in hundreds of customers. Two or three tournaments usually come to the resort per year, and the company has hosted its own. But now those bookings are regularly canceled due to warm weather, and the resort no longer offers its tournament.�“It’s really hard to come up with things that are fun for families to do that are of equal draw as ice skating,” said Paige Radney, the resort’s experience manager.�Sometimes she schedules snowshoeing instead. But of course, that requires snow, which is also in short supply in a warmer climate.�� Kishore Singh waited for a bite while ice fishing on Lake Morey in Fairlee, Vt. As the sun beat down on the lake on Feb. 10, Singh said that drilling through the ice has been a lot easier this year.

ERIN CLARK/GLOBE STAFF�The resort has begun hosting murder mystery parties and concerts instead of hockey tournaments. They want to be less dependent on the weather: “We’re not going to put all our eggs in one basket,” Avery said.�Out on the lake, ice fisherman Trevor Pregent, who grew up in Fairlee, said that he would have normally fished much more by this point in the season. He’d just measured 6 inches of ice in a fishing hole where he’d usually find 12. Ice fishermen typically set up ice fishing shelters called shanties, but the ice is too thin this year.�“I haven’t even bothered pulling it out,” he said.�Across the lake, Mimi Silverstein, 26, was on the ice with friends. She said that having grown up in the Northeast, ice skating is her personal “cure for sadness.” But that feels less true as the planet warms. Climate change came up in a conversation with a friend recently while skating in Boston.�“I was skating around and crying, basically,” Silverstein said. “I’m really, really sad about winter going away.”�Lyla Harris, 17, who was Nordic skating on Lake Morey with her mom and uncle, said that the melting ice reminds her of what she’s learned about climate change in her AP environmental science class.�Harris is contemplating environmental science as her college major. She wants to do something about the melting ice below her skates. She asked herself what she hopes the rest of the planet is asking, too: “How am I going to help this world not get really warm?”�By noon, skaters were unlacing their rented boots on wooden benches and debating whether they ought to ask for a refund. It was easier to walk on the ice than skate. The resort had stopped renting skates for the day and soon added a message to their website: “ICE IS TOO SOFT. PLEASE STAY OFF.”��Hunter Bischoff and Mimi Silverstein relaxed on top of a frozen Lake Morey and soaked up the sun. Silverstein said she's worried that the winters of her childhood are disappearing.

ERIN CLARK/GLOBE STAFF��