Howdy,
Winter has come back to Minnesota and, this time, it seems to be in earnest. Temperatures no longer break above freezing and a couple of snowstorms have blanketed the state in a coat of fresh, white coldness.
Before heading home to Rochester to celebrate Christmas with my family, I went to Triple Falls to take a few photos of the amazing ice that forms every year.
Drippy
The temperature was still breaking freezing during the day when these were taken, but that only creates more interesting ice formations. These ice blobs form at the base where my theory is that droplets consistently hit the same spot and freeze on impact.
Licking Not Recommended
Under one of the main torrents, an ice tube forms almost every year. This next photo was taken there. A column of these icicles has formed this year. It might still form a tube but it is more of a forest of icicles at the moment.
Cicle of Winter?
Yesterday, I decided to drive from Rochester to the Mississippi River to see what it looked like. Parking at a boat launch on the Wisconsin side and walking over the bridge that spans the river, I was able to get a few images like this one. There were people ice fishing on the backwater, but it still seems too thin and risky for that.
Mississippi Ice
Everything is strange with the pandemic but, honestly, this was one of the better Christmases I've had. My sister and I both got Covid-19 tests before heading home and it was so much nicer to be together after having to forgo Thanksgiving.
Wishing you all a happy 2021!
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The photographs are stunning, the ice formations are great, it provokes you to eat them!
Thank you. The farm runoff turns the water green or brown sometimes, but it was pretty clear this year.
Great to see a post from you and see such wonderful photos! I'm always surprised by the risks ice fishermen take early and then again late as ice begins to form. But then, I'm not comfortable going out there in the dead of winter! Excellent photo of the ice on the river and at the falls.
I'm happy to hear that you had a good family Christmas!
Thanks! I'm back in Mankato now, dressing the avalanche of email Monday will bring.
There have been a number of people going through the ice this year already. People don't think this through. It's especially dangerous on a river because the current can pull one away from the hole they fell through and trap them under the ice.
I did drive out on a lake when I lived in SD. After three weeks where the "high" was -20°F, it seemed safe enough.