Mysterious ice balls falling from heavens
By MICHAEL WOODS
THE (TOLEDO, OHIO) BLADEBARCELONA, Spain — A Spanish-American scientific team is monitoring ice events in the United States this winter following research on a baffling phenomenon first detected here.
They are not watching for ordinary ice storms or slick roads, but incidents involving “megacryometeors,” great balls of ice that fall out of the clear blue sky — possibly because of global warming.
I was disappointed that the story didn’t provide accounting of the possibilty that the cores of these oversized ice accretions – big balls, if you will – had been formed in the upper atmosphere around the high-altitude scat of high-flying birds.
These bird droppings could clearly be lofted up quite high in the correct circumstances and then form the cores for the icing process.
Really it seems clear to me, something we’ve known since at least 1963: nowhere on earth can really be safe from aerial bombardment by an ICBM.
Thank you! I’ll be here all week!
[pun stolen from Spider Robinson as used in some Callahan‘s yarn!]
I have to say, I recall that joke from our shared childhood, where the setup was that occasionally leaks in the septic tanks of 747s would form, allowing large chunks of dirty ice on the outside of the plane. When this happened, turbulence would cause these to break loose, and one time they fell and killed a young couple in, I believe, Ohio…
Same punchline, of course.
[note tie in with NYT section on Flight, as well]
The hydrochemical analysis clearly indicates that
it is pure (not waste) water.
Further information about the progresss of our research can be found in the website:
http://tierra.rediris.es/megacryometeors
some publications:
http://tierra.rediris.es/bloquesdehielo/publica.html
Jesus Martinez-Frias