We live in Midwest near Kansas City. During this first show of winter we had some snow, frozen rain, sleet, and colder temperatures. A few days after this we heard strange, unexplained popping (thud) noises no big cause for concern as they were not loud. Kind of like a snowball hitting a picture window. Two nights ago with no warning there was a very loud BOOM like a sonic boom. We thought it was an explosion how ever the 911 operator had no other calls, our neighbors heard nothing. The next day the weatherman stated there had been several calls of this happing in the area and explained that a roofer stated it was the ice thawing and refreezing sets it up and causes this however no one elaborated. What happened? Is there a name for this phenomenon? It was very loud. The coating of ice and snow couldn’t have been more than three inches. Our house is 27 year old ranch.
2007-01-17 12:12:23 · 1 answers · asked by fred f 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
Ice expands when it freezes, so it's possible unusual circumstances set up something on your roof where expanding ice built up stresses high enough for it to crack explosively, kind of like how earthquakes happen. Melting and refreezing snow and ice can bring about such circumstances, and even a 3" solid sheet of ice can pack enormous internal stresses from freezing, if it were sufficiently trapped at the boundaries. This stuff happens with polar sea ice too.
2007-01-17 12:22:57 · answer #1 · answered by Scythian1950 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋