Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I have a question about water freezing

One of the few things I learned at Iowa State, there is a mirre climate, and micro climate, or something like that. The one they report is at about four foot high, the other at ground level. It's colder close to the ground.

Yep. That's what my job as a meteorologist with our State's division of air quality does - model the interaction of air pollutant plumes with nearby buildings, terrain, and vegetation. Been doing that stuff for 30+ years now.

Micro and macro, perhaps?
My specialty is "boundary layer micro-meteorology".

That may well be it, thanks.

I was disappointed along with thousands of others here locally when the NWS weather station at the regional airport failed during the hurricane in 2017.

You would think that they could get a formidable weather station to record vital information in an event like that.

Now that data is lost forever... Rainfall and wind speeds were all lost.

Might find this place interesting. To the west is prairie and hills left by glacier. Elevation drops quickly a couple thousand feet from 6 miles west of town to the SD/MN border 10 miles east. So the prairie weather gets moderated at the hills, and we're on the edge of systems moving up through Minnesota. We're typically warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and miss most blizzards. Always fascinating to watch thunderstorms approach from the west, hit the hills and then slide around us, either to the north or south.

Then there was the winter we had snow with a strong wind riding down the hills to the west. Warmed the air enough to form freezing rain over about 20 miles of Interstate.Not forecast, the rest of the Interstate was good driving, but lots of cars in the ditch here.

NWS products have improved for here over the last decade. But a Fargo TV station has a degreed meteorologist who has been watching this area long enough to accurately forecast this area for all its quirkiness.

I have, many times,I also recall had bottled water which would be liquid but turn to slush if you shook the bottle. Same thing with soft drinks. I also recall watching water which was at 30 degrees but liquid, freeze solid around my water intake pipe. I remember this because it resulted in me having to carry water for 200 yards, on snowshoes, for 2 months (and another 3 months without the shoes) until the damn waterline thawed out. Good times. GD

I kicked a bottle of water out of a combine cab years ago. It bounced as high as the cab, it did not stop for several bounces' picked it up and read the label. "SPRING Water"

The bars in Angeles City used to cool their San Miguel beer in a salt and ice bath. Pop the cap, and watch the ice crystals form in a matter of seconds!
Jerry

I usually keep a case of 24 bottled water in rear seat of my truck. I have found that different bottles freeze at different rates. When it is in the 20s for several nights some of the bottles will freeze solid, some totally liquid. Into the teens and a few more will freeze, some will stay liquid. Single digits almost all will freeze, but usually a couple will say liquid.
Placement (whether they are in the outer ring or inner) doesnt seem to be a factor.
Some will solidify when shaken, some will stay liquid when shaken.
Always baffled me what the difference was that affected the temp they would freeze at.

Deer camp in Idaho this year, coldest morning was 3 degrees. It was a race when making coffee. Open the water bottle and dump as much into pot as possible before water freezes in bottle. Fun game early in the morning...I need a friggin wall tent...

There are several principles at work for this to happen. Air above the ground is warmer. Not necessarily much, but warmer. Latent heat of fusion takes more energy to freeze the water. Nucleation can be a significant issue with pure water. Lastly, as water cools it becomes denser until it hits 39.5 degrees. As it cools further it expands significantly. Depending on how long the water has been in the bottle and the temperature at which the water went into the bottle and the ambient temperature of it's storage, that expansion after passing 39.5 degrees F can pressurize the container and reduce the freezing point significantly. In all probability simply loosening the cap enough that the expansion will not build pressure will be sufficient to freeze the water and is a simple way the determine which properties are most critical to the explanation.

One obvious example of supersaturation are rain clouds. Seeding clouds provides a nucleation site around which supersaturated water vapor collects and makes rain drops. Saw this once as a kid and was pretty amazing. Heavy, grey clouds covered the area including the old steam powered wood mill a couple blocks away. The mill released a plume of black smoke which it did occasionally. Smoke found it's way to the clouds and very shortly thereafter there was a cloudburst type of downpour.

Sorry, I don’t believe you.

I do because spring water springs.

I thought surveyors at least had to be civil engineers. And in that, there'd be at least 2 semesters of chemistry and 1-2 semesters of physics, just in your B.S. undergrad.

No?

I can not go into scientificical details, however, I too have had unfreazy water bottles. I think it's not pure.

My piss jugs freaze at about 20F. They're the yellow ones.

Pretty much all you need to know to be a trucker.