| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1289.1 | good advice | KAOFS::M_FETT | alias Mrs.Barney | Tue Jan 28 1992 09:20 | 11 |
| Lyn, you may also want to re-iterate good advice for frost
bite and other cold weather hazards (for those of us who have had
MORE than a FEW days below freezing!)
We've had such driving-hostile weather and temperatures (with
windchill it went down to -48C last week) that -18C seems like a
heat wave!
Monica
(waddling and bundled)
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| 1289.2 | Are all sounds bad?? | CLT::PIQUE::FREAN | N.B. | Wed Jan 29 1992 09:21 | 14 |
| Re. .0 "If you ... *hear* the ice begin to crack under foot..."
Recently my family and I went skating on Wattles pond in Groton and we could
hear several resounding dull cracks echoing beneath us. The ice was so clear
that we could see from the existing cracks that the ice was several inches thick.
An ice fisherman there confirmed that the ice was over 12 inches thick. The
temperature was in the 20's F.
My question is: What causes the cracking when the ice is that thick and the
temperature is so low, and is it any cause for concern in these conditions?
Thanks for any help!
Charlie Frean
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| 1289.3 | | MOIRA::FAIMAN | light upon the figured leaf | Wed Jan 29 1992 09:35 | 8 |
| I believe thart it's the same phenomenon that causes ice cubes to crack
in the ice cube tray: water expands as it freezes, and the cracking creates
stress which is relieved by the cracking.
I've certainly always assumed that cracking (and cracks) in a well-frozen
pond is to be expected.
-Neil
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| 1289.4 | Expected but it can be dangerous | TANNAY::BETTELS | Cheryl, Eur. Ext. Res. Prg., DTN 821-4022 | Wed Jan 29 1992 10:56 | 17 |
| I used to live on the Mississippi and we would skate or snowmobile the back
waters in the winter (sometimes the ice would freeze so hard that you could
drive a car across!). As mentioned in .3, as the ice freezes deeper and
deeper, it still must expand and these are the cracks you hear. Sometimes
whole slabs will move causing one slab of ice to shift.
If you are skating on "unmanicured" wild sites :-) you should be careful of
the ridges that might be formed by these slabs shifting, especially if it's
been snowing and you can't see them. At the least they might trip you up.
At the worst, a friend of mine suffered multiple fractures of his ankle when
his blade caught in one of these cracks. He fell over but his skate and leg
didn't.
(Never stopped us from absolutely lovely moonlight crosscountry skate trips
though :-)
ccb
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| 1289.5 | cracking defined | MCIS5::TRIPP | | Wed Jan 29 1992 12:41 | 22 |
| Just to clarify, the "cracking" sensation I was trying (am still) to
describe would be several, together, shall we say clear and crisp
cracks. Think about what you might hear if you were to step in a
frozen puddle in your driveway and broke through it. That would be the
danger signal.
I just read in the Massachusetts notes file that there aparently are
some lakes safe for skating in or near Littleton. BUT I would still
utilize the same commonsense thinking.
Monica, thanks for the reminder, if you do venture out and it is very
cold, or windy and cold be sure to cover as much exposed flesh, and if
you want apply a coating of something along the lines of petrolium
jelly (vasoline) or lanolin for protection from frostbite. If you
clothing, sox or mittens get wet change them immediately. Wet clothes,
especially on extremities is an invitation to frostbite! And if you do
end up with cold (either red or white) toes and fingers, make sure you
rewarm them *slowly* in *warm* not hot water. And while you are
rewarming them sip something like hot chocolate to warm your "innerds"!
Lyn
(who hates the cold more than anything!)
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| 1289.6 | | MCIS5::WOOLNER | Photographer is fuzzy, underdeveloped and dense | Wed Jan 29 1992 12:53 | 13 |
| Right, Lyn, we used to call the reverberating big-ice noise "ice
booming"--no mistaking that pond-wide voice for the extremely
localized, high-pitched cracking that means you're in big trouble right
now!
In Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass. (where I spent my Wonder Bread years)
the firefighters kept tabs on safe ice, specifically "the channel",
but I think they watched other ponds too. All you had to do was call
the fire station. I've noticed that the Worcester T&G reports on
*some* *Worcester* ponds... sure would be nice if surrounding towns had
the manpower/$$/interest to do the same.
Leslie
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