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Smoothed lines of ice-out dates over time for the eight lakes in New England with the longest periods of record. The top four lines represent lakes in northern and western Maine and the bottom four lines represent lakes in southern Maine. Ice-out dates from 29 lakes in New England with 64 to 163 years of record were assembled and analyzed for this study (Hodgkins and James, 2002; Hodgkins and others, 2002). Twenty-two of these lakes are in Maine, four are in New Hampshire, and three are in Massachusetts. Ice-out dates have become significantly earlier in New England since the 1800’s. Ice-out dates changed between 1850 and 2000 by 9 days in northern and mountainous areas of New England (primarily northern and western Maine) and by 16 days in more southerly locations (figs. 1 and 2). Changes in the ice-out dates over time were very consistent between lakes within each of these two areas of New England. …

Historical Changes in Lake Ice-Out Dates as Indicators of Climate Change in New England, 1850-2000, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Fact Sheet FS 2005-3002, January 2005