Squamish and the nearby areas which include Vancouver have experienced record-breaking cold temperatures that have happened over the last week. Recently a video showing a Canadian stream quickly disappearing beneath ice went viral on all social media platforms. Jessie Uppal who is a meteorologist at The Weather Network explained in detail that the scene which has been caught on camera is definitely a rare phenomenon. This phenomenon occurs only when water bodies experience extremely cold temperatures.
As the temperature dropped to a new low at Squamish in Canada, frazil ice, which is something that can be called as rare, was captured on camera, and in the video in which the rare phenomenon has been captured, it seems as if a stream is instantly disappearing before the eyes as the snow covers the area.
As the video was shared on Twitter, one of the users, Brad Atchison, wrote: “An example of rarely seen Frazil Ice from Shannon Falls in Squamish, BC yesterday morning. The stream disappears instantly before your eyes.” Well, this amazing video has taken the internet by storm as it has shocked and surprised many netizens out there.
But still, there were some netizens who said that the video which has been shared on the social media platform is fake. While dismissing speculations that the video was fake, Atchinson wrote, “For my followers in here. I zoomed in on the original video a tiny bit. A very few people thought it was fake and just reversed. Absolutely not! I would never have posted it if it was,” Atchison added.
Frazil ice occurs when small, needle-like ice particles form in supercooled water (that is when water is below its freezing point but remains a liquid due to its turbulent flow), as per the Connecticut River Conservancy. As these ice particles are random and not attached, frazil ice is not solid and looks more like slush on the top of the water.
This amazing video has gained over 8 lakh views so far as the video is getting more viral day by day. Netizens were quite amazed to watch the rare phenomenon which was captured in the video. “Wow!! I’ve never heard of that but that is seriously cool,” commented a user.
According to some news reports, it is known that Squamish and the nearby areas, including Vancouver, have witnessed record-breaking cold temperatures in the last week. Daily Hive had also reported that Squamish recorded a temperature of -15ºC (5ºF) on December 27 which broke the record of -12.8ºC (approx 9ºF) which dated back to 1968.
Jessie Uppal explained what has been caught on camera is a rare phenomenon that occurs when water bodies experience extremely cold temperatures, and further explaining this, he said, that this phenomenon happened due to the temperature below freezing and is colder than water. He said, “The air temperature surrounding these streams is well below freezing and much colder in comparison to the water. These small bodies of water are supercooled, meaning the temperature of the water drops below its normal freezing point but remains as a liquid,” Uppal was quoted as saying by The Weather Network.
He also added, “This is where we start to see the formation of ice crystals on the surface of the water. These ice crystals are somewhat soft and have little structure to them. Since the flow of water is constant and turbulent, the soft ice crystals that do form are not able to completely freeze solid. With less turbulent streams, more ice is able to accumulate quicker, which creates the illusion of a disappearing river.”
