Tag Archives: ice dam

River ice restrained this year.

During most recent winters, there has been a battle between heat and cold, freeze and thaw. One of the features of a Raymore Park winter thaw is the flooding of the wild area across from the parking lot. An increased river flow usually caused by rain, raises river levels and cracks the ice cover. The ice then progressively forms a moving dam and flood which moves gently downstream. In a couple of decades of observing the before and after, I have never seen the process in motion. This January, after the recent thaw, the ice stalled before the river widens above the weir and no doubt will produce some spectacular flooding and subsequent erosion when the next strong rain event occurs.

Ice littering the banks of the Humber, January 2014.

Considering the cold weather prior to the thaw, the ice is surprisingly thin. The approaching ‘PolarVortex II’ will no doubt consolidate the present ice dam.

D’oh! Missed it.

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Every year it’s the same old whine – “I wish I could be there when the ice breaks up on the river”. Well, I could have been there and I wasn’t. While I was home, the rest of the ice decided to move off without anyone to witness it. I took some shots today while a streamer from Lake Huron was busy dumping a surprising amount of snow onto the park.

Some comparisons are in order to show the changes:

January 29, 2013

January 31, 2013 the grass has been demolished by ice moving ashore.

January 29, 2013; track through the wild area. Houses once occupied land to the right of this photograph.

January 31, 2013; track is buried.

Until 1954 and the Hurricane Hazel disaster, more than a few homes were quite near this location by the Humber. I wonder how regular incursions of ice affected them and their properties. Residents at the time must have had some pretty close calls.This is a fairly average depth of ice to float ashore but the extent of it is quite surprising – further along, the ice actually covers the bike path.

Hard to tell but ice covers the bike path.

Hard to see where it is but ice now covers the bike path.

Thaw brings ice and fog.

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A mild night and as expected, the rising river broke up the ice and floated some of it ashore overnight. I have been waiting for years to see this event but it always seems to happen overnight for some reason. One spectacular thing about today from a photographer’s standpoint is the fog that formed as warm air hit the relatively cold ground and river. This came and went in a low-lying layer and changed quickly so that you could actually wait for the most photogenic formation.

Ice pushed ashore – not very thick compared to some years.

As this is a fairly brief thaw, much of the ice above the weir has remained in place and will create a large dam once the weather turns colder. Spring might bring the promise of a spectacular flood.