Grand Lake, Colorado, March 5 (U.S.): With a backdrop of mountain scenery and a natural ice rink, the annual Grand Lake ice hockey tournament offers a great shot of Colorado’s beauty. What’s not clear is the problem brewing under the players’ skate shoes, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
This year’s tournament was held a month later than usual, and thin ice forced organizers to postpone the event originally scheduled for the third weekend of January.
“We had filthy conditions and less than six inches of ice. There was no way to detain safely,” Grand Lake Mayor Steve Codron said.
This is a fact increasingly faced by many communities living near lakes, which freeze and provide myriad activities during the winter months. According to a major United Nations climate report released Monday, as the planet warms, the amount of ice dwindles and the amount of time it maintains a solid body of water. These changes are forcing communities to adapt and cut back on some winter activities while raising the specter of long-term environmental and health issues.
Sapna Sharma, an aquatic ecologist at York University in Toronto, analyzed 100 to 200 years of data for 60 lakes in North America, and found that in the last 25 years, “we are losing ice at six times the historical rate.” Air temperature, especially in winter, is the most important driver of lake ice, she said.
Sharma said that in addition to shorter ice seasons, so-called “winter webbing events” are becoming more prevalent.
“You’re going to have really cold days and some warm days with rain and cold days again and some rain and melting snow,” she said. “That’s exactly the kind of winter we’re spending in Toronto right now.”
Some of the impacts of climate change can be addressed through efforts such as building fire-resistant homes, reducing overfishing, and building infrastructure that can withstand severe storms. But there are no simple solutions to preserving the lake’s ice cover. Only sharply reducing greenhouse gas emissions can slow warming, and subsequent ice loss, in the coming decades.
According to handwritten records kept by Northern Water, a major water provider for northeastern Colorado, the past 20 years at Grand Lake have seen an ice season about 14 days shorter than the previous 20 years. There, the air temperature in November rose on average by about five degrees Fahrenheit, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. Last November was the second hottest month ever.
David Gochis, a hydrometeorologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says Colorado’s trend of extremely hot summers and unusually warm fall last year have combined to warm the lake’s water, contributing to a delayed and gradual freeze.
This meant that the hockey tournament at Grand Lake had to be postponed, already a sign of society’s adjustment.
“From now on, I’ll schedule this past weekend in January at the earliest, just to make sure in case we have another year like this,” organizer Brian Blumenfield said.
Besides the effect of recreational activities and economic impacts, longer periods of open water will affect “the quality and quantity of water resources downstream,” according to a 2021 study from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
“When a lake freezes, it doesn’t evaporate the water,” said Adam Jokerst, water manager for Greeley, a fast-growing Colorado city that just got an aquifer to support future growth. He said that open water for longer periods increases evaporation loss for the year.
Additionally, warm, stagnant water can provide prime conditions for algal blooms, which can be toxic to humans and animals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We can treat any water, but just bring your checkbook,” Jokerst said, reciting a common phrase in the water utility world.
Rising temperatures are having an effect on lake communities around North America.
For example, most areas of Alaska are currently experiencing an unusual season – a warm start to the year followed by below-average temperatures in the late fall.
Lynette Warren has led hunting groups around Alaska for 46 years. In the popular glacial fishing lakes across Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage, this year’s warmer temperatures have melted the snow, triggering a chain reaction. Heavier ice water. double ice. More water seeps through the cracks. The fishermen avoided those lakes, and congregated in a handful of habitable lakes.
“When those lakes are the ones where people fish all the time, the chances of fishing are significantly reduced because those lakes are overfished,” Warren said.
The longer open water season means more time for premium-paying tourists to fish from boats. But it also means more time for the sun to warm up – a threat to cold-water fish that have faced deaths in recent years in conjunction with record summer temperatures.
In parts of Alaska and northern Canada, frozen lakes and rivers also play an important role in connecting remote, inaccessible indigenous communities. Without ice, residents can only access outdoor goods and services by plane or boat. For both transportation and recreation, changes in ice directions can be fatal.
Back in Grand Lake, a Johnny Cash song blasts from a speaker while playing five simultaneous hockey games, and moisture in players’ breaths crystallizes in the freezing air as they cheer for their teammates.
Hockey player Rachel Kindsfatter, a caseworker who helped people who lost their homes in a wildfire that devastated the area in the fall of 2020, says she understands that delaying the tournament pales in comparison to the many problems facing the world. However, having to put it off for an entire month so that people don’t fall for it is “scaring.”
She said, “Give it 10-20 more years and who knows if (the tournament) can happen”
AOQ