IceWatch

What could be more fun than watching and waiting for ice to form on your pond, lake or river? Watching and waiting for it to go away! Knowing when the ice comes and goes every year is an important indicator of climate change. And you can do your part to help scientists understand what’s really happening with our climate just by watching and recording the dates when ice forms and thaws.

If you live near a pond, river or lake, become an IceWatch volunteer observer. Pick a spot, write down the exact dates when ice completely covers the lake, bay or river and when the ice completely disappears in the spring. Ice turns to water when the weather gets hotter.

How to Monitor Ice? 

1. Select a Site
   Pick a water body in your area that you can easily monitor.
2. Observe
   Take your guide with you and watch the water over the year and take note of when it freezes (the day the ice completely covers the area) and the day it completely disappears.
3. Record
   Record the ice on and off dates, the location and the kind of area you are observing.
4. Share
   Once you’ve returned home visit www.naturewatch.ca and share your discoveries.  You will become an official NatureWatcher!

More Tips for IceWatching

• IceWatching should be done from a distance.  There is no need to walk onto a freezing body of water or to the shoreline.
• The key to providing reliable data is to monitor the same location in the same way every year.
• Indicate if there is something exceptional about your observation area, for example, if it is downstream from a dam or if you are monitoring salt water.