Frozen Moments

These four photos were taken between January 9 and January 16, 2004. During that time, I witnessed an extremely rare event. Nearly all of the 487 square miles of Buzzard's Bay, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, froze solid that winter. I was able to capture that progression in photographs.

 1) This first picture was taken on January 9. Notice the frozen seawater on top of what we called "Pig Rock". Such frozen sea water indicates a prolonged period of exceptionally cold weather. The ocean temperature gets cold enough to actually ice over solid objects, like rocks, whose surface temperature is also very low. Salt water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water, and it's constantly moving in the bay. So for salt water to freeze like this, well, it's gotta be very cold. And it's gotta be very cold for a while.

2) This photo, taken the next day, on January 10, depicts a layer of fog, in winter, that has formed only over water, not land. This is evidence of extremely cold air, below zero or in the single digits, over extremely cold water. Water vapor escaping from the ocean instantly freezes because of how cold the air is. This phenomenon is rare on Cape Cod. Also notice that considerably more frozen seawater has formed over Pig Rock.

3) This picture was also taken on January 10, but later that morning. Notice that, even though it's almost noon, there is still considerable fog over the ocean. And, more significantly, notice the water closest to shore. It's slushy and viscous, partially frozen. This is evidence of extremely cold water that is beginning to actually freeze where it's shallow. And, although it's later in the day, the temperature has not moved up much, if at all. Bottom line: there is a widespread region of very cold air, and it's not going anywhere soon.

4) The coup de gras: A Frozen Ocean on January 16. The memory of the night before, and the morning of, this momentous event is incredibly vivid. I remember going to bed at my girlfriend's house, which also overlooked Buzzard's Bay, on the night of January 15. It was absolutely frigid out, and there was no wind at all. That meant Buzzard's Bay would be very still. The viscosity of the water at the shoreline had been increasing over the last several days. And that slushy, partially frozen water, alluded to in the last picture, had been spreading out further into the bay. I wondered that night, just before going to bed, as I peered out the sliding glass doors of her bedroom overlooking the bay, "Wouldn't it be cool if the bay froze overnight, and we awoke to that."

Needless to say, the next morning, I was ecstatic.....

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