NH Outside: Weather Archives

Although the temperature had gotten down to the teens last night, it didn’t seem really cold this morning. Still, the ice in the swamp spoke today. The Ice Monster’s children were playing and calling out to each other from different parts of the swamp.

First, one side of the swamp would give out a groan. Almost immediately, another side would respond with a crack. A brief spell of silence, then a new call from another area, followed shortly by a response from a different portion of the swamp. I’d never heard the ice call out this early in the season before, but it sure had a lot to say today.

A few weeks earlier I’d heard some different sounds from the ice, sounds made by a four-legged animal, probably a moose, walking through the partially frozen swamp. Creak, crack, creak, crack. With each step, the animal broke through the thin ice and sent a shiver of sound through the night air. The poor ice monsters had probably been entertaining the thought of sending their children out to play when the moose came along to disrupt their playing field.

Usually the ice speaks only deep at night when the temperature is below zero. We hear it then, on those nights known as “rafta snappas,” nights when the roof rafters groan and seem to snap suddenly. The ice, of course, does the same thing on those nights. The deep cold causes the ice to contract; suddenly, there’s a sharp SNAP and a crack appears through what had been a solid sheet of ice.

These cracks aren’t just surface deep, but extend all the way through the ice. During the day, the winter sun shining down at an angle warms the water through the ice and the water rises up into the cracks, only to freeze again overnight. In this way, the ice moves across the surface of the lake or pond. When the ice comes up against an island or the shore, it pushes up whatever is in its way-boulders, small stones, debris. Over time, these are moved higher up the shoreline, to sit well above the water of summer. While I know the scientific reason, I prefer to say that the new locations came about from the ice monster family playing their games on cold winter nights.

We don’t usually think about how many types of ice exist in nature or how the ice is formed, but we should. Most of us probably just think that cold temperatures equal ice and we head out to play. Unfortunately, it’s far more complicated than that.

While surface ice thickens as it migrates downward into the body of water, a snow cover will slow the heat loss to the atmosphere. If the ice isn’t thick enough before becoming snow covered, it will take more freezing nights to make that ice thick enough to hold our weight or that of our vehicles. Furthermore, turbulence in the water will mix the surface-cooled water with warmer water below, causing the formation of frazil ice. This form of ice is very fragile and not something we should be playing on.

The different types of ice make any on-ice winter activity one that calls for caution on our part. Knowing where the springs are in a lake, knowing where warmer water may have entered the lake in fall, understanding that not all ice is as solid as it appears, can keep us safer when we are on the ice, fishing, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, skating, and ice boating.

The ice monsters don’t have to worry about all that, though. The variations in ice just add to their vocabulary. As water freezes, it expands, and the ice monsters will call out with one voice. Later, during those deep cold spells, the contracting of the ice brings forth a different voice from these denizens of the winter swamps and ponds. “The ice monsters are back,” we say as we snuggle down under an extra comforter. “They sure are talkative tonight."

Eventually, the sun moves higher in the sky, and its rays strike the water from a different angle. Now comes a new change. The water lower down begins to heat up as the sun warms it through the ice. Air bubbles begin to form and work their way through the softening ice. The warmer water rises and rises, and suddenly the ice “turns turtle.” You can look out at the ice at 10 a.m., and it appears solid enough to walk on, but come back at 1 p.m., and you’ll see only water. No, the ice hasn’t melted; it has sunk below the warmer water that had risen from the deeper areas.

This is the time for the ice monsters to go back into hibernation. Many months will pass before we hear their groans and creaks again. Ah, but spring is still some weeks away. For now, the ice monsters play and we humans can join them.

By Susan M. Poirier, Master Gardener

It happened about two weeks ago. My husband and I, our two grown sons, and their young families were standing around the kitchen, preparing a weekend meal, when out the kitchen window I saw a sign from above: the chaff from pine cones and needles now spent with the summer’s heat and rain, slowly drifting down to the lawn and forest floor behind our 1800’s farmhouse.

Everyone agreed, if you could do nothing else but look out the window, you would know: no longer high summer, not autumn yet, but late summer. Perhaps a time to regret opportunities missed before school begins and chilling weather becomes the norm, but for others, time to get out and garden!

In the garden, cooler days mean you don’t feel dehydrated and burned to a crisp by end of day; fewer insects mean less aggravation; you can count on more regular rains. Fewer weeds need pulling—a few hours’ work and a perennial bed returned to a weed-free condition does the gardener’s soul good. Newly planted perennials have time to develop good root systems to make it through the winter. A few more weeks and bulbs will become another item on the list of things to plant, but not yet. Late summer.

The nights have become cooler, dipping into the 50s after weeks of temperatures in the 80s and 90s, a delicious change. Time to dispense with fans and air conditioners, light blankets, and thin cotton pajamas. Time to throw open the windows, pull up an extra blanket, and don the predecessors to the flannels of winter, not quite so thick and warm, but longer and useful when you, the first one up, need warmth to keep you from running back to bed.

The days warm quickly, and often require removing a layer of clothing to keep up with the more summer-like temperatures of the afternoon, but at night, it all goes back to that cool of the evening we associate with this time of year.

Listen! The insects of night also make different sounds: the crickets croon instead of chirp; the saw-whet owl’s raspy metallic call has become more intense somehow; in some areas, the whippoorwill startles you out of sleep, now that fans and such no longer hum a soothing lullaby.

The ferns start to turn; their fronds change from green to gold and bronze. Mosses green and lush have taken over vast areas of our yard, something I never mind. The thick, velvety surfaces make

By Helen Downing, UNH Cooperative Extension Master Gardener