Spatial diversity of the ice cover on the lakes of the European Lowland in the winter season 2003/2004

Abstract

In the middle of the winter period of 2003/2004 the authors carried out synchronous measurements of the thickness of the ice cover, snow cover and the vertical distribution of water temperature in 33 lakes located in the area of northern Germany, Poland and southeast Lithuania. The area spread over the area of approx. 1200 km (8.02 – 25.50 E), in the belt of approx. 250 km width (52.87 – 55.26 N). The lakes are of different areas (from 75 to 595 ha) and mean depths from 3.5 to 38.7 m. Ice thickness evidently increased from 3 – 8 cm in the western part of the Mecklenburg Lakeland to 27 – 31 cm in the Vilnius Lakeland, and corresponded to the course of the thermal winter. Water thermal conditions were mostly determined by local environmental conditions, particularly hydrological and morphometric ones.