Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Icicles

Here are my thoughts on the weird icicles that formed on the south side of my house. We've had a good bit of snow and it had been cold, so there was plenty of snow on the roof ready to melt. It had warmed up the day before for the first time in a while, and was above freezing when this happened. The weird icicles formed near, but not exactly across from, the window. There are both normal and angled icicles.

I think that the straight ones formed normally, when the temperatures were warming up. I think the angled ones also formed normally, but the radiant heat from the house pushed the dripping water/forming icicle away from the house as it formed. It wasn't particularly windy, so I think it's a heat thing, not a wind thing.

In other news, I've grown weary of Valentine's Day things, right on schedule. I dislike being reminded that I'm. still. alone. Even though things are going just fine right now. I feel inadequate in that regard, courtesy of the media. Thanks for nothing.

2 comments:

  1. Aha! Your theory makes a lot of sense to me since the area where our wonky icicles have formed is on our someday-to-be greenhouse which is covered (not very permanently!) with greenhouse plastic on the walls. When we have sunshine (even at way below zero temps) the inside of the greenhouse has been regularly climbing to 40-50° above zero. I'm sure those inside heated walls are emitting warmth toward the forming icicles. (Of course, with no heat as of yet inside the someday-to-be greenhouse, the night time temps are the same as the great out-of-doors.) So if I'm understanding this theory, as the ice melts and runs off the roof and starts to form icicles, the heat from the wall keeps ice from forming and the colder air away from the wall lets the ice build up on that side?

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  2. That makes sense to me (what you and Mama Pea said...) And, boy, do I agree with you on Valentine's Day. I think we should start an Anti-Valentine Movement. You just get bombarded with syrup from all sides and it doesn't help when you're trying to ignore the fact that you are not part of a twosome. Do something nice for yourself, Linda. If we lived closer, I would take you out for a drink!

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Hi, sorry to make the humans do an extra step.