Ice, ice baby

February 14, 2021 3:53 PM

With a large swath of the US from Texas to New England under a winter storm warning [WaPo; NWS], now seems like a good time to admire beautiful ice formations resulting from freeze/thaw cycles. If you don't find any in nature, geology professor (and scientific ice aficionado) James Carter has suggestions for extruding your own.

(Be safe out there, everyone!)

posted by Westringia F. (8 comments total)

A recent freeze/thaw cycle produced a hummingbird shaped icicle.
posted by justkevin at 4:01 PM on February 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

Finally! A joke to add to the repertoire next to the one about the constipated mathematician.
posted by 7segment at 4:34 PM on February 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

These ice formations are so gorgeous! Thank you for the post.

I remember when I first moved north, having grown up just outside Vancouver, the most temperate city in Canada. I was amazed and delighted by the frozen lakes up here, having never seen a large body of water frozen over in real life, ever. I remember my jaded northerner boyfriend being amused by it but come on man, admit this is cool! It’s never gotten old for me and it’s been over 25 years...
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:44 PM on February 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

I think he must have made an error when he says, referring to this image:

By contrast, in the photo below we see that the ice emerged from the pipe as a single ribbon and only later split into two ribbons.

Surely a double ribbon emerged first and was only subsequently followed by a merged one, possibly because the pressure caused a narrow and divided slot to widen and join.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:47 PM on February 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

We've got a gigantic stalactite of ice hanging off the back side of our building. We live in a flat roofed building with one extra large galvanized steel gutter on the one end that's sloped. Apparently all this freeze/thaw we've been having (Chicago... it's 0 degrees F right now) has backed up our gutter and downspout and I have the sense that this might tear the entire gutter off the building. The downspout is frozen solid, and the overflow is dripping ice all over the back balconies. It's kind of cool looking, but I think it's going to lead to damage. There's a stalagmite of ice under one of the overflow icicles, too, which I never remember seeing ever.

All this subzero weather freezes the ground. Then when things warm up, the massive pileup of ice and snow (we're expecting up to ten more inches over the next couple days!) starts melting and cannot sink into the frozen earth, so it might end up in our basement.

We've had such a mild winter up until about a week and a half ago. And the last few winters have been super mild, too. But winter is back with a vicious fury recently.

Stay safe everyone.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:49 PM on February 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Dang, poor timing. If I'd known there was going to be an FPP on this I'd have stopped to photograph the needle ice I spotted under my deck a couple of days ago. But its surroundings were not very photogenic and it's not that uncommon around here and so I went on about my business.

Many of these phenomena, especially the ones that form when suddenly cold air freezes moisture that's being squeezed out of plants, fallen wood, or soil, are semi-common around here in Southeast Alaska -- not everyday occurrences but certainly something you would not be surprised to see if you were exploring outdoors on certain types of winter day. But having grown up in an area where cold was plentiful but these amazing manifestations were not, I remain fascinated by them whenever I encounter them.

My favorite winter phenomenon here, though, are the incredible frost crystals we get. I've tried for years to capture their magic with a camera but it's harder than you would believe. But when the forest is filled with sparkling, fantastically delicate inch-long feathers of ice on every surface, it's pretty amazing.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:31 PM on February 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

I like ice needles. Here are some on the bank of the creek behind my house. I keep trying for the ribbons that come out of plant stalks, but thus far no luck. We still have some winter left, though, so... who knows?
posted by which_chick at 7:21 AM on February 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

I'm a volunteer fire lookout on California's Central Coast. In the winter months, winds at the exposed peak of the ridge (i.e., where the lookout sits) can peg up to 70MPH. We had a mix of rain and snow one night, and the next day's volunteer showed up to find these horizontal icicles on the walkway around the cab. (Two nights later, I pulled an overnight shift and experienced the wind for myself.)
posted by mykescipark at 11:44 AM on February 15, 2021 [3 favorites]