Ice Sculptures

The Boy Scout Troop our boys are involved with is quite adventurous. They go on a trip each month during the school year. This month's offering was a ski trip. We decided that the girls and I would tag along, too. From our house in flat West Texas, to Ruidoso, New Mexico takes between 4 1/2 and 5 hours. Just a short drive for those of us who live out here and have to drive a ways to get to most anything.


Coming home, we had some weather with which to contend. It began a light snow mixed with a little sleet yesterday morning. The entire way home, we were in the middle of some form of frozen precip. Thankfully, the roads never felt slick, except in a few places.


We had fought the entire way to keep the windshield thawed, with the temperature in the low 20's, but had no idea what was happening to the exterior of the Suburban and truck. Pulling into the garage, I opened the door and looked down. The running board was covered in the strangest ice sculptures.

We had already kicked most of the ice out of the driver's side wheel well when I thought to grab the camera, but it was filled up to the very edge of the tire! I've never seen that happen before.

The ice was only a couple of inches above the surface of the pavement. I can't imagine how it wasn't knocked off.

It almost looked like the sides of the Suburban were covered in feathers. I would have thought they would be facing backwards, in the direction the wind would have been sweeping the sides. In fact, they faced forward! How is that possible? I would LOVE to have seen the physics of this ice forming demonstrated in a wind tunnel. Wouldn't that be interesting?