Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/08/watch-videos-of-frozen-ocean.html
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OMGlob. No!
Just another reason to live here in California.
Even with the fires and earthquakes.
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that is the beach at the Seacrest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth. Was just there in December for a quick getaway without the kids.
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Well, it is a freak weather event, ironically related to global warming. We won’t be untouched by climate change in California. It probably won’t be frozen oceans, but more like everything on fire, all the time (except when it’s being flooded).
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“You go first, I’ll take pictures!”
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It’s amazing the drone functions so well in the ridiculous cold. Wow. Great photos. This isn’t true open ocean, it’s Buzzards Bay, btw, separating the back of the elbow of the Cape from New Bedford, and though it is pretty wide, it will freeze over when it’s this cold (and stays this cold). It’s also the southern approach to the Cape Cod Canal, and usually the Coast Guard keeps it clear of ice for shipping, but maybe it’s been too cold? Anyhoo. Glad they got these pics when they could, it’s 30s in MA today and will be the rest of the week, so this ice might not be so solid anymore.
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Coming to San Diego, never…
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The UK is fairly safe if you don’t live near a major river (except for the Thames in London, if that is allowed to flood then the whole country is doing worse). It’s just the political climate that’s bad here.
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Well, that’s in Buzzards Bay, so it’s not exactly deep open ocean (like the national seashore on the outer arm of the Cape), I expect on the other side in Cape Cod bay near Brewster and Wellfleet a lot of it’s frozen too, since it’s quite shallow there.
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Wouldn’t wish it on you long-term, but to not experience it at least once is a shame. My b’day is end of January. Long ago (40 years) when West Michigan grew cold earlier – snow for Thanksgiving was common – long stretches of the eastern edge of Lake Michigan would freeze up by mid-January, up to a couple miles offshore. Fabulous Birthday Parties out on the ice…
Pick a night with low wind and a full-ish moon. Get one or two half sheets of plywood, attach rope leads, load up with supplies, drag 'em out onto the ice. We would bring lottsa beer, in coolers (to keep the beer from getting too cold!), a stack of camp chairs, couple of grills, charcoal, and all the fixings. Supplement with a tab of your favorite windowpane or some of that dark gooey hash that was so common back then…
The play of moonlight on the variegated surface of that frozen lake was gorgeous…photonic faeries dancing around trying to get warm. Every so often your eyeballs’ cones would invent a little color in the scene, until the rods reestablished their dominance and turned the world back into silver and blue. Food tasted better – steaks & sausage with cheesy potatoes and beans on the side under the 22-degree sky is a three-star dining experience.
The flattest spots seemed to be about a half-mile out. But the ice/water boundary was where the action was, and the bravest (most foolish; -) would hike out to the edge. If you were lucky, you’d get a chance to watch cannonballs form in the water. If you were super lucky you’d see the balls get pushed through the boundary ice by waves.*
Somehow, no one ever died or even got into much trouble. (Maybe drink too much, requiring a “sled ride” back to shore on the plywood.) Everyone came away awed, feeling like we’d been on another planet (this was before Star Wars, so no Tatooine refs, thank bog). Chicago’s light bubble, 160 miles south, provided the magical “what if/who’s out there” factor.
* Ice at the boundary tends to break into slabs; more ice and water action behind them would then tilt those slabs. Waves would grind smaller chunks of ice against the tilted slabs, with two effects: the chunks would eventually round into balls from bashing the slab, and the slab would develop a weak spot from the constant bashing. Eventually, if everything worked out, the ball would blast a hole in the slab…and given the proper wave magic, the ball would pop up out of the water through the hole.
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Are we sure someone didn’t chuck some ice-nine in there?
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Wow! Hadn’t even realized that I came here for the Vonnegut reference. Leaving very happy, thank you!
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