A blog about a first-time house owner learning to maintain his backyard, and thoughts about nature, science, history, and life.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Photo Series: The Icy Creek

The creek has dropped below the level of the dock again, after submerging the dock and the first step earlier this week.

Notice how the bottom step has a bit less snow than the step above it.  Also, some ice was left behind after the water receded below the dock.

As I've noticed when the temperature drops well below freezing (to the upper teens when I went outside this afternoon), the edges of the creek freeze over first.

Small areas of surface ice floated by.

The surface ice was broken up by rubbing against the sturdier ice along the edge of the creek.

As you can see, the creek carried a train of these thin patches of ice along the surface.

The ice ringing the creek extends from the bank up to three or four feet into the creek in places, while in other places, the ice is only a couple of feet wide.

The opposite bank also had the ice extending into the creek.  With temperatures slated to remain below freezing until the end of next week, the ice cover will be expanding on the creek.


The steel cable that holds the dock in place is still caught in the ice.

The ice dangling over the bank shows how high the water was at one point - a few inches above its current level.




It looks like the tree branches in the photo above provided a stable platform from which stationary patches of ice could form....the water just slid on by.

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