Diversity and Variability of the Course of Ice Phenomena on the Lakes Located in the Southern and Eastern Part of the Baltic Sea Catchment Area

Abstract

The aim of the study is to determine the scale of differentiation and variability of ice phenomena on the lakes in the south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea catchment area. The analysis was performed based on data from the period 1961–2020 from 15 lakes located in Poland (10) and Belarus (5). The characteristics of ice phenomena were characterized, i.e., the length of their occurrence and ice cover, the thickness of ice cover and the number of breaks occurring in the ice cover in the given years were characterized. The analysis of the course of ice phenomena made it possible to distinguish three regions with an increasing length of ice phenomenon occurrence from west to east. The zones were the west of the Vistula, the east of it and the eastern part of the Belarusian Lake District. In the analyzed multi-year period, a shortening of the duration of ice phenomena and ice cover, a decrease in the maximum thickness of the ice and an increasing number of breaks in ice cover were observed. These data correlate with the upward trend in air temperature.