Even when animals enter your field of view this happens, and that's in most cases far from being life or death. What's the logic behind this? It might be a bear that might try to kill you? You might be starving and desperate to hunt an animal? Well doesn't the same logic apply to freezing to death and unsafe ice because they're just as life-threatening?
Hmm, to me it seems that the logic is the same. Travelling on the world map, you get zoomed in the moment there is an animal in the same map tile as you. But you are not given a notice two tiles beforehand, when your character does not have any direct evidence of an animal possibly being somewhere ahead.
Walking on ice you are given a notice the moment your character notices that ice has become dangerous, but you are not told two hours beforehand when your character thinks that there is increased likelihood that some time in the near future the ice could possibly maybe become dangerous.
But the thing is, my character most likely would be aware of the risk factors in reality. He would see the snow / ice thawing, feel the temperature to be above freezing, take note of the whole weather situation, remember the development of the past days / weeks and yes he'd also have the oppurtunity to check the ice thickness (which I know is not a feature in the game yet). He'd also have the whole body feeling of actually being on the ice. I as the player am sitting in a comfortable modern apartment at my computer, while the character I'm playing is a Finnish iron age tribesman out in the wilderness who's a lot more in touch with nature than I could ever be 
There is the temperature gauge on the top-left corner of the screen. It also tells you if the sky is overcast or sunny. Now, as a player, it is up to you to pay a little attention. If it is spring time, if the temperature is above freezing, and especially if it is sunshine, that means ice conditions will deteriorate quickly.
But, yeah, now when you explain it I do realize that this indeed might not be so clear for players who don't have the real world experience. For us who have grown up with these things, it is about as clear as "oh, fire burns!" or "you get fatigued for running long distances carrying a lots of load". So, yeah, I understand that it would be heplful to have somekind of "newbie tutorial for urban people" which would give players more detailed instructions on basics of dealing with natural environment.
(Another thing might be just a question of getting used to the UI. I remember how, when I started learning to drive a car, I felt it rather demanding trying to distirbute my attention all over - how to keep my eyes on the road yet being constantly aware of what there is on the rear mirrors, what the speedometer says, and also fluently shifting the gears without looking at the gear stick. But after a few weeks I got used to it and nowadays all of that happens automatically without me thinking about it. I can imagine it might a same kind of process with game UI - while the main attention is on the map screen, being also aware of the temperature, the physical stats, the message box.)
Yes, I think that would solve the problem. In fact it would probably be the ideal solution. Until this system is fleshed out, you could make what you wrote earlier part of the tutorial and also write it down in the encyclopedia somewhere:
Ah, yes, improving the game encyclopedia is a constant major task, for there is so much information and sometimes we fail to predict what kind of information the players will need. (Another example is the handling of some mushroom. I, for one, grew up in a family where this was a routine every autumn. Some poisonous mushroom need to be boiled in water, and then the water is thrown away, as the mushroom are no more poisonous but the water is for that is where the poison went. Then we have seen some players being confused as the information said that a certain mushroom will be safe once boiled, and the player used raw mushroom as an ingredient in a stew, thinking that it will become safe as the stew is boiled. Sure, the mushroom becomes safe, but the stew itself becomes poisonous as the poison will remain in the liquid of the stew. Luckily, fellow players on forums are always there to help other players to better understand how these things work, in case we failed to explain it in detail in any of the in-game instructions.)
And what about you? Could you think of writing a small "some tips for newcomers and urban players" piece of instructions? Those can be posted in the tutorials section of the forums, and also added in the
wiki.
If you make it clear to the player somehow that travelling on ice when zoomed out does not mean it's completely safe even when the game doesn't force you to zoom in immediately, then you have eliminated the possible miscommunication. If players ignore it, that at least would be on them, not on you.
I'm not sure what counts as "making it clear". I do understand that not many players browse through a text file inside the game folder, but this is what the news.txt says, searching for word "ice": (yes, a wall of text, I know. TLDR; "However, it should be noted that the ice can't never be trusted completely and even when you are allowed to travel on the ice on world map it can still break.")
* realistic modelling of ice and freezing of lakes
Pretty much everything related to ice has been overhauled.
Lakes start to freeze when the weather gets cold enough. This doesn't happen the same time every
year, and the ice also doesn't grow equally thick every year. And when the lakes freeze, they
now freeze gradually.
- The ice cover first starts to build up at shallow water and proceeds towards deeper sections from there on.
How fast the ice cover increases or decreases depends solely on the weather. Ice thickness can also vary at
different sections of the lake. It's not anymore safe to walk on the ice as soon as there's ice cover on the
lake. Thin ice can break under any load it can't hold - be it your character, NPCs, animals or items.
- There's a confirmation to step on the ice if the character doubts the ice will hold. This applies to thin ice
which characters can easily recognize by stomping on it to see if it cracks. Notice that even if there are no
doubts and confirmations the ice still isn't necessarily safe to walk on.
- It's not possible to travel on the ice on world map when the character doesn't trust the ice completely.
If that's the case a message to zoom in to travel on the ice will be shown. This way the character
can't mistakenly step on unreliable ice on world map. However, it should be noted that the ice can't
never be trusted completely and even when you are allowed to travel on the ice on world map it can still
break. Should this happen, the character is forced on zoomed in map where he/she needs to navigate to
safe location.
* falling through the ice
- If you happen to fall through the ice climbing and pulling yourself back onto the ice is not easy and
depends on your climbing skill, agility and strength. All of these factors are tested on each turn you try to
move from the water onto the ice. Wielding any sharp pointy weapon such as knife, sword, spear or even an arrow
will improve your chances to pull yourself out of the water. Swimming skill is also important as it determines
for how long and how easily you can keep struggling in the water.
- If you're unable to get out of the water after 5-10 minutes, you're almost certainly not going to get out.
Your body temperature starts to drop as soon as you fall in the freezing water, and when hypothermia
sets in you will eventually lose consciousness and drown. Depending on your swimming and climbing skills
you will also build up certain amount fatigue on every turn you spend struggling in the water, and the more
fatigued you get the lower your chances to pull yourself out become.
* improved mechanics for making a hole in the ice
- Time required to make a hole in the ice has been adjusted and now also depends on the ice thickness
and the tool used. It's around 25 minute job to make a hole into half a meter thick ice
with an axe. An inch thick ice can be broken in a minute or so. If the ice is very thin you can
also break it without any tools.
- When making a hole in the ice the best available tool is automatically selected. In addition to axes,
spears and swords also stones and knives can be now used for breaking ice - even though they are quite
unhandy for the job. The order of ice breaking tools from best to worst goes as: axe, spear, sword,
knife, stone.
- Holes in the ice will freeze back gradually and remain recognizable for a few days. Eventually
the frozen holes will look like the regular ice cover, but may be weaker than the surrounding ice
for some time. As holes in the ice won't freeze completely overnight it's now easier to maintain
your wintertime water supply by breaking the same slightly frozen hole on a regular basis with only
a little effort.
* water temperature
- Water temperature factor has been added, and it's precisely tracked thorough the year. It's not anymore
always pleasant nor possible to swim for equally long time just about any day of the year.
- Entering the water has faster effect on character's body temperature now. Even if you were feeling warm
when going to swim in the cold water you'll get chilly or cold very soon. When the water is very warm
you can spend hours in there without ill effects, but even if the lakes aren't frozen the water can still
be so cold that there's a true risk of hypothermia. Needless to say, summer is best the season for longer
swimming trips from now on.
- If you are about to enter the cold water there's now always a confirmation if you really want to do so.
It's still safe to swim in the cold water, but now you just may need to warm up properly afterwards
to get comfortable again. However, entering the cold water when you are already freezing is not a
wise move.
- When looking at an adjacent water tile a message about the water temperature will be displayed.
"The water is freezingly cold.","The water is very cold.","The water is rather warm." etc.
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