***UPDATE - 1/24/13 - 4 days later this entire part of the lake is frozen all the way across to the Sand Bar, South Hero and points north. Possibly photos this weekend***
Some lighter fare on this Monday afternoon - Ice Waves!
As I approached the lake on Sunday I could see that the National Weather Service wasn't kidding when they issued their high wind advisory - there were whitecaps as far as the eye could see. But it wasn't until we parked and went to look over the steep bank that we could see that it wasn't just water blowing in and crashing on the shore.
From the shoreline to about 20 or 30 feet out, and all up and down the shore to the north and south, was a swath of decent sized ice chunks (Guessing, I'd say they probably averaged about 30+ lbs.). As big rollers came in they would pick up the ice just before breaking and crashing over a layer of more of the same, slowly building up along the shoreline. Let me know if you agree in the comments, but they way the layers built up reminds me of scales on a lizard or the roofing tiles on southwestern-style homes.
It's unclear exactly where the ice came from, but given the location and the SSW winds, it seems likely that they broke off of ice forming along the shores of Sand Bar Beach/Bridge, about 2-2.5 miles to the SW. Anyway, I ambled down the steep stairs to the beach and took some photos of this rather unusual sight, which I thought I'd share with you today (click to enlarge and view gallery):
[gallery link="file"]
Cool, huh? By the way, that last image is actually from the previous Saturday, smack dab in the middle of our January Thaw, that the Free Press actually printed on page 2 last Tuesday. So as you can see, this is actually the second weekend in a row I've observed some interesting Lake Champlain ice movement. Obviously the winds were much calmer, but there was a massive field of icy slush moving by, headed north, with larger chunks floating in between the shore and the slushfield. Let me know what you think and if you have any, feel free to share any similar images you may have taken. And don't forget to like and comment on that last image and the ice waves gallery images on Facebook.
I also took a short video clip. Unfortunately, while iPhone 4S takes 1080p HD video, it only let's you upload directly to YouTube in 720p. I've read about workarounds, but they require paid apps which you have to use to record the video in the first place - but I haven't given up my search for a solution yet! Either way, I may upload via PC later to get the full quality video online, but here's the 720p version for now:
*UPDATE* - I submitted the video to Voices for the Lake yesterday and they've posted it now as well in full 1080, though I still think it lacks some of the resolution I see when I plug my iPhone into my TV with the HDMI adapter. /nerdoutmoment Anyway, see if you can tell the difference between the 1080p and 720p versions:
