The temperature dropped to minus five last night (minus twenty for disciples of Anders Celsius), the coldest that I’ve seen in Sewanee. I took a walk in Shakerag Hollow this morning to see how the woods were faring in this unusual chill. I’ve never experienced such silence here. The quiet was punctuated by woodpeckers drilling meager breakfasts from high in the canopy and trees occasionally snapping out gunshot sounds as their wood shattered. No sign of wrens, titmice, chickadees. The forest floor was mostly clear. Only a few deer tracks. Most birds and mammals are in hunker-down mode.
Amazingly, given the cold, the springs were still running. This flowing water created some beautiful ice formations on the rocks all around. When water vapor rises from the stream, it hits cold, dry air. This is an unstable mix, ripe for an encounter with a pointy nucleation site: an icy strand of moss or rock edge. Once they get started, these crystals build on themselves, growing “flowers” from the air. An icy foreshadow of the spring ephemerals? The largest ones are a couple of inches across. Similar formations are found in polar seas and host very unusual communities of bacteria.
So welcome to Tennessee, Polar Vortex. Here are your blooms:
David George Haskell 
David, these are absolutely beautiful images. Thank you for braving the elements and taking these and sharing them with us. I can only imagine how cold you were.
Happy New Year,
Lucy
Thank you, Lucy. Happy New Year to you too.
Stay warm!
Thanks for trekking out into the frigid cold to bring pix of those beautiful crystals to our armchairs by the fire. The photos are tempting me to venture out so that I can see such blooms in person.
It is beautiful out there. This morning was darn cold, though.
Thank you how lovely
Fountainpen
Lovely…your words, nature’s art
Thank you, Jan!
Beautiful. Just beautiful. Thank you for sharing them!
Thank you, Maureen. I’m delighted that you enjoyed this.
Thanks for this post, David. I have just come in from my own ramble around Lake Cheston, which itself is abloom. Lovely weather we’re having (except for what it does to one’s fingers, toes, and camera lens, that is).
Thank you. I’ll have to wander to Lake Cheston. I love your photos of the “steam” coming off the surface. Beautiful.
Stay warm!
Here’s what bloomed overnight: http://mydailysnap.blogspot.com/2014/01/polar-vortex-at-lake-cheston.html
Amazing! The whole mountain is in bloom. Makes me *almost* wish the cold would linger.
You bring such joy! Thanks.
Thank you, Peggy!
You should see what’s happening in South Carolina. Total bloodbath. To wit: http://driftersdesk.com/2014/01/07/the-great-polar-vortex-of-14-notes-on-anarchy-in-greenville-south-carolina/
Bring it on. I have an underground bunker full of Thomas English Muffins. Polar-Vortex-Crazies will not prevail.
We don’t know WHAT we’re doing down here. Just make sure you’re stock-piled.
Beautiful post and photos! I spent the early morning hours checking the fingers and toes of the animals at AWARE for frostbite. (We do provide heat lamps and bring many of our charges indoors). Thankfully, all was well. Lots of birds were active in the parking lot and at our feeders, but then, we had a balmy six degrees down here!
Glad to hear that all’s well. Our animals are OK, but not happy about this turn of the weather. Sarah’s been blanketing and piling on the bedding, especially for the older animals.
Here’s to the thaw!
We’re in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with a flowing spring on our property. I will now have to go out first thing in the morning to see if we have any ice flowers. Thanks for the wonderful photos.
Thank you, Esther. Good luck on your quest!
My senior year at Sewanee (1980), the temperature dropped to the low single digits (F) one calm, windless night. A few days before, Lake Cheston had been only partially frozen over–surely the rest had frozen over during that cold night. Trudging alone through crunchy snow to the lakeshore, I found the surface was frozen smooth as glass. Unfortunately, I had no skates, but the newly formed ice may not have held my weight anyway. But broken icicles from a pavillion served as projectiles, which shattered satisfyingly on impact with the glassy surface; the pieces skimmed frictionlessly in all directions until reaching the shore, or the rough previously frozen, snow-covered sections. The eerie ring of the sliding ice pierced the still winter air and brought sublime, unforgettable delight.
Beautiful! I love the sounds of ice. You might be interested in the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en0p1Y35p3w Ice drumming on Lake Baikal.
Thanks, Dr. Haskell. That’s fantastic (as are your photos and book, BTW). Looks like they had fun making that video. I’ll have to share it on FB.
Glad you enjoyed them all!
Dr. Haskell,
That is so unbelievably cool (literally and figuratively)! I wish I could be there to see those ice crystal blooms! Stay warm.
Regards,
Marshall
Thank you, Marshall!
Fascinating and beautiful! I’ll bet the walk through Abbo’s Alley would’ve been spectacular, too. I never recall it being below zero during my four years there in the late ’70’s. There was talk, then, of global cooling and a developing ice age…
Yes, all the streams had interesting ice formations yesterday.
Thanks to humanity’s prodigious efforts, the ice age seems to have been averted…!
Assuming you did not tear your clothes off this time. Just reading that chapter was excruciating.
No — once was enough. And it was plenty cold enough with clothes on!
So beautiful! I love the contrast between the ice “flowers” and the moss, especially.
Thank you! I agree: ice in moss is beautiful.
Mary, this is the guy who wrote The forest Unseen, Also meant to say that Lake. Erie is almost frozen over, so there will be much less lake effect from that way. C
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Wonderful! Such a joy to read of and see such beauty, and to learn the science that goes with it!
Thank you, Jeanne.