Weather A ‘COOL’ weather phenomenon that only happens when it’s COLD!

[NC Susan]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...y-happens-when-its-cold/?tid=trending_strip_6


A ‘COOL’ weather phenomenon that only happens when it’s COLD!


By Kathryn Prociv January 7, 2014

Everyone has heard of the “sonic boom.” You know, the sound created when an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound breaks the sound barrier sending shockwaves through the air?

Now have you ever heard of a “cold boom”? Technically known as a cryoseismic boom, this phenomenon is reserved only for the coldest of temperatures, and considered pretty rare for the lower latitudes of the continental United States. The boom sound is created by a cryoseism, which is a mini explosion within the ground caused by the rapid expansion of frozen water.

This cool phenomenon shocked the Upper Midwest last weekend, and more recently parts of Canada including Toronto over the weekend, when temperatures crashed with the arrival of arctic cold fronts rapidly freezing any water and moisture underground. A quick search for “strange booms” on Twitter revealed these cryoseisms have been heard from Green Bay, to Chicago, to Toronto in the past week.

While considered harmless, these cryoseismic booms certainly caused a stir waking several people from their slumber.

So next time you hear a loud boom during a cold outbreak, it was likely a rare cryoseismic “cold boom!”

 

[NC Susan]

Strange booms startle many in Northern Illinois

The strange booms you heard on Sunday night weren’t the stomps of Bears or Packers fans, they were likely from cryoseismic activity! Lisa Kammes from Sycamore says “My husband went to the back yard to check on [the booms]. My neighbor called police. We heard lots, until we finally fell asleep at 3am. Kelsey Brown of Pecatonica said it sounded like someone “hitting the side of the house.” In South Beloit, Bobbi Bilderback reports that her dogs started barking. And down the road from her in Rockton, Marcie Severson-Haselton said she heard three loud booms. “My son even woke up and came to our room immediately!” At my house in Southwest Rockford, it sounded like someone threw something heavy onto my roof. For me, it was more of a thud. I didn’t put two and two together until I heard about other people who heard the strange sounds.crysoseisms

Some of you on Facebook were correct when I asked what the strange sounds were from: a cryoseism. Because our ground is pretty dry, the warm air on Sunday allowed water to seep deep into fissures and cracks. The water flowed down into and around the rock and limestone. When the Arctic cold front came through during the day, the temperature dropped quickly. We all know that water expands as it freezes (the reason why soda cans explode when they freeze and why a milk jug of water will expand to a ball-shape if it freezes). The water in all of these cracks expanded so quickly, it created mini explosions…explosions of water and ice all over the region. These booms aren’t enough to physically shake the ground, but they are enough to startle livestock and unsuspecting people!

Cryoseisms are a fairly rare occurrence here in Northern Illinois, as the temperature drop has to be fairly quick…from above freezing to very cold, in a short amount of time. If you heard them, chime in on our Facebook page! -Eric

- See more at: http://addins.wrex.com/blogs/weathe...any-in-northern-illinois#sthash.RcObXvPY.dpuf

 

[NC Susan]

http://www.weather.com/news/news/frost-quake-canada-20140106

Rare 'Frost Quake' Rattles Toronto and Across Ontario
By Becky Kellogg

Published Jan 7 2014 12:58 PM EST
weather.com

It’s so cold the ground is shaking in Canada.

Toronto residents were awakened from their sleep a few nights ago by loud booms and shaking. It wasn’t an earthquake as many originally assumed. Instead, it was what’s known as a "frost quake," or cryoseism.



A frost quake is a rare weather occurrence that happens when temperatures fall to cold extremes, causing water in the ground to freeze. As that underground ice expands, it causes the soil and rock to crack, which produces the booms and shaking similar to an earthquake.

(MORE: The Science of Frost Quakes)

The most recent frost quake was felt in Toronto and the eastern half of Canada on Jan. 3.

"Cryoseisms are very locally felt," said Dr. Jon Ebel, senior research scientist at Weston Observatory at Boston College. "Just a few miles away, people won’t notice it. But people right next to it will feel it."


Extreme cold temperatures are required for a frost quake, so reports of them in the United States are relatively rare. We found reports of frost quakes in Maine from 2000 to 2005. A frost quake in 2003 left a 70-foot wide crack in the concrete cellar floor of a home in Phillips, Maine according to the Maine Geological Survey.

"Sometimes it will crack plaster and knock loose objects off walls,“ said Ebel.

Ebel said cryoseisms has been documented in northern New England and Alaska. The so-called season for frost quakes isshort.



"We never see the reports before late December or early January," said Ebel. "You have to have enough frost in the ground before a cryoseism can happen. Usually we don't hear about them after March."

 

[tnhillbilly]

We have been hearing them now for 2 days in middle Tennessee.

 

[Publius]

I think some may refer to this as "Frost Quakes".

 

[Caplock50]

And here's something everybody's missed so far...

"Now have you ever heard of a “cold boom”? Technically known as a cryoseismic boom, this phenomenon is reserved only for the coldest of temperatures, and considered pretty rare for the lower latitudes of the continental United States."

'"Reserved only for the coldest of temperatures, and considered pretty rare for the lower latitudes of the continental United States."'

Which means the weather in the 'lower 48' is getting colder, not hotter, since we are hearing of these 'frost quakes' quite often and had never heard them before this year. And according to this link, we are into the second year of the new IceAge...

http://iceagenow.info/2012/02/ice-age-2014/

“Forecasters predict that a new ice age will begin soon,” says this article on russia-ic.com.

“Habibullo Abdusamatov, a scientist from the Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences considers that the sharp drop in temperature will start on the Earth in 2014.

 

[ncmissouri]

And related to that, it's a coincidence, but did you notice the spread of terrorism happened with global warming policies? Maybe some of the money/power went to terrorists.