So cold, the harbour froze
I admit I’ve only been in my temporary digs for coming up on 3 weeks now, but in all that time, I’d never seen the harbour at St John’s, Newfoundland show the slightest hint of ice through frozen rain storms, sub-freezing winds or heavy snowfall.And yet this morning, after a night where the temperature plummeted to -10C (14F), the harbour developed a thin layer of ice (or ‘nilas’ as we former ice lecturers call it…) over it! That ice formed a pretty extensive rim around the entire harbour and there was only a small patch, maybe 500m in diameter, maybe a kilometer (wouldn’t say I’ the best for estimating this kind of stuff) in the centre which was not frozen. And that little puddle of water was filled with seabirds.
So I know sea water will start to freeze at about -2C but it only takes a few hours of calm weather at -10C for it to form a thin film of ice! Maybe I’d never seen it freeze over before because when the temperatures plummeted that low, they had usually been accompanied with strong wind… Interesting, eh?! And to think yesterday , there was a skin-numbing, heat sapping cold wind blowing!
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