The ice regime of Lake Ostrzyckie (Kashubian Lakeland, northern Poland)

Abstract The article presents the ice phenology of Lake Ostrzyckie, which is a water body covering an area of 308 ha located in the central part of the Kashubian Lakeland, northern Poland. The analysis presented in the article is based on data from daily ice phenomena monitoring for the period of 1971–2010. Data including forms of lake ice, as well as the thickness of the ice cover were obtained from the Institute of Meteorology and Water. In order to present relations between the ice phenomena and air temperature the meteorological data from the Gdańsk University Limnological Station in Borucino were used. The article presents changes in the duration time of the ice seasons and changes in the ice cover duration time in relation to winter season (November–April) temperatures. The structure of the ice phenomena duration period observed on Lake Ostrzyckie consists of three different stages of ice cover formation. 94% of this time the lake is covered by permanent ice cover, the freezing period takes about 5%, and the break-up takes only 1% of the ice phenomena duration period. In general the ice phenomena in the lake can occur only in the years when the average air temperature in the winter is lower than 5.0°C, whereas the permanent ice cover is created when the average air temperature of the winter season is lower than 4.8°C. The maximum thickness of the ice cover is usually 23 cm, and the average is 14 cm.