Posted on 01/06/2018 6:20:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
Have you seen this video of a guy skating on Fountain Lake in Byrd Park?
Megan Wise and I decided to check for ourselves if it was safe to walk on the ice in Central Virginia. I emailed Jeremy Hoffman at the Science Museum to pick his brain:
This is a picture of Dr. Hoffman doing something very important.
He pointed us to Minnesota - they know their ice there!
While ice is never 100 percent safe, we now had a goal - to see if we could find ice 4-5 inches thick on Fountain Lake in Byrd Park.
Although we saw some open water on one side of the lake, with some Geese in it, we went to the other side, and it looked frozen solid. We drilled into the ice and found around 4 inches. To be honest, we were surprised!
Megan Wise gingerly stood up - no cracking, no sounds. She was totally fine. The ice supported her weight.
I'm not going to ask her how much she weighs, but I don't think it's a lot.
So we decided I should give it a go: I weigh much more than Megan (about 230 pounds) and it held me too!
As you can see from the pictures, we didn't venture far from the edge.
WE DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU TRY THIS YOURSELF. But the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says if you can find 4 to 5 inches of solid ice, it's safe to walk on. And with the deep freeze over the next few days (through Jan. 8), the ice will only get thicker.
But remember: NO ICE IS 100 percent safe!
Hmmm...did you use enough snow for the berm? That’s the only thing I can think of.
;>)
It’s the thought that counts. ;>)
But I hear it’s pretty cold and snowing in FL now. Maybe not all the way down to Miami yet...but the ice age IS coming.
LOL...funny.
Rule of thumb
1 inch = No Way
2 inches = 1 may
3 inches = small groups
4 inches = OK
Problem is voids or springs which may create weak spots
Sounds reasonable. I fell into a creek while ice skating as a kid. Not such a big deal because it wasn’t too deep and I didn’t get swept under the ice - but under the wrong circumstances you can easily die. It was a really cold day, and everything wet was frozen within a minute. When I took my pants off they stood up by themselves.
Ever notice that no matter how cold it gets, the Chicago river doesn't freeze? Makes me wonder what's in that river.. It's not green only on St. Patrick's day.
The ice was stronger when we were kids. People fall through all the time now.
My father just hosed down the backyard in Detroit. I skated every day after school.
Snowmobiles are put on all the lakes here in northern Michigan. Trucks would be safe too. We’re excited to get a temp above zero tomorrow.
Chicago river is frizzed this year. Happens every few years on average
Same answer, LOL!
Sometimes yes, sometimes not...
Growing up in Minnesota, lots of lakes had a junk car parked out on the ice in front of the lakefront bar. Put in $1 to predict the date and time when it would fall through. They must have closed off the betting long before the actual event.
I’m guessing with all of the environmental rules they don’t do that anymore. (They WOULD tow the car out once it had gone through).
That’s funny.
IIRC, there were *ice out* lotteries for Lake Winnipesaukee, NH.
Could be. He had to have some sort of instinct going for him, because he was one of those dogs that caused people to just shake their heads, chuckle and say something to the effect of "That dog just isn't very bright."
What sort of smarts is knowing he was bright enough not to get his feet wet that day, and I wasn't.
We kids used to take terrible chances with the ice on that river, and yet none of us ever had a major misfortune. After that incident, I became a lot more cautious.
Our neighbor in Detroit also used to flood his backyard for skating when I was a really little kid. Detroit was semi-safe back then. The dinosaurs not so much. :)
We kids used to take terrible chances with the ice on that river, and yet none of us ever had a major misfortune. After that incident, I became a lot more cautious.
Our “exit strategy” was when we ended up in the shallow river, to stay upright (6” to 18” deep), get to shore, and run all the way back to the farm house.
Then we would strip off the wet clothes and warm up.
Here is a series of instructional videos on the subject:
Idiots writing articles like this one make me embarrassed that they are human and presumably American.
I see what you did there!
It must be because of global warming climate change. ;-)
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