The dangers of warming winter lakes

Short Wave

NPR

Nature, News, Astronomy, Science, Daily News, Life Sciences

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over half a billion people live by lakes that freeze over in the winter. But as the climate warms, those lakes are losing whole days of ice cover. Winters are also getting weirder, with more intense temperature swings that lead to multiple freezes and thaws. Those fluctuations make the ice less safe, and more likely for people to fall through as they walk. So, today, producer Berly McCoy gets into how these changes are altering culture, community and safety on the ice – plus, how firefighters train for rescues.

This is the first in a two-part series on how lake ice is changing. Check out Monday’s episode for part two!

Check out photos from Berly’s reporting trip to Madison, Wisconsin.

Interested in more winter science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
0:05.4	investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish.
0:11.1	More information is available at Hewlett.org.
0:14.7	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:20.3	Hey, shortwavers, Emily Kwong here.
0:22.8	Quick reminder, shortwave comes out four days a week, Monday through Wednesday and Friday.
0:27.5	So to make sure you never miss an episode, look for the follow button on your podcast app and give it a little boop.
0:33.0	Thank you kindly.
0:33.9	All right.
0:34.7	Now, it's my great pleasure to welcome shortwave producer Burley McCoy. Hey,
0:39.3	Burley. Hey, Emily. So, as you know, winter is my dam. I ice fish all winter on a frozen lake
0:46.1	in northwest Montana, where I live. Yes, you are our resident shortwave ice queen. Thank you.
0:51.6	And I'm not the only one who takes ice seriously. Almost every year since 2011,
0:56.2	a huge lake in Madison, Wisconsin has frozen over enough to support an entire festival. It's called
1:02.6	Frozen Assets, and that's where I headed to report this story. Ooh, this sounds fun. What happens at
1:09.4	Frozen Assets? So on and near the ice of Lake Mendota, there is ice hockey, curling, ice skating.
1:18.6	People are flying these giant, colorful kites on the ice.
1:22.6	A skydiver is landing on the ice right now.
1:25.9	That's incredible.
1:26.9	And they did this warm up for a 5K where more than a thousand people jump up and down on the ice
1:32.8	to make it shake.
1:34.6	What?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.