In 1693, on the other side of the w

In 1693, on the other side of the world, a Finnish merchant named Olof Ahlbom started recording the date and time of the spring ice breakup on the Torne River, which forms part of the border between Sweden and Finland. Though Ahlbom’s recordkeeping was interrupted in 1715, when he had to flee a Russian invasion, he resumed it after he returned home in 1721, and it has been carried on by other observers ever since.