Warmer Temperatures Prevent Freezing of Huguenot Lakes this January

By Annie Gombiner

On any given day this January, passersby would have observed ripples roll across the surface of the Huguenot Lakes and clusters of ducks bobbing in placid circles. While that scene seems tranquil, it is actually a cause for alarm. 

The Huguenot Lakes should be frozen over in the winter, but climate change is causing warmer winters in New York, which is inhibiting the lakes from freezing. Global temperatures have risen approximately 1℃ since the Industrial Revolution. The last week of this January saw average highs in the 40s, with lows only dipping slightly below freezing. This year, New York City also broke the 1973 record for the latest first measurable snowfall of the winter. 

Temperatures have to be below freezing for an extended period for lakes to freeze. Water has a relatively high specific heat capacity. This means that a relatively large gain or loss of heat is required to alter water’s temperature. In other words, it takes “more” loss of heat to freeze water.

Interestingly, constant freezing was once so reliable that the Huguenot Lakes were dubbed “Mahlstedt’s Ice Pond” for decades. The Mahlstedt family, who once inhabited the structure that now houses the Huguenot Children’s Library, ran a lucrative ice business from the mid 1800s until the 1920s. Their ice, which they harvested directly from the Huguenot Lakes every winter, was used in ice boxes, until the development of electric refrigerators. 

The lakes took on new life after the Mahlstedt family sold forty acres, including the lakes, to the City of New Rochelle in 1922. New Rochelle High School was constructed on the Mahlstedt land and the Huguenot Lakes became a popular site for ice-skating. Until recent years, ice-skating was common on the Huguenot Lakes and other local bodies of water, like Beechmont Lake. 2018 was the last year that ice-skating was officially permitted on New Rochelle lakes.

Joseph Summo, a New Rochelle High School Teacher’s Assistant and lifelong New Rochellean, recalls his experiences ice-skating on the Huguenot Lakes:

“Usually by New Year’s, the lakes would be totally frozen. We would skate on them for all of January and February. The town would bring out lights, so people could skate at night. They would have a Zamboni to clean the ice. When it snowed, the town would shovel the lakes. Everyone would go. After school sometimes, I would go right out and skate with my friends. It makes me really sad to think that kids can’t have the same fun that we used to have on the lakes. I have so many fond memories of my time out there with friends and family.”