Iced up Galway Harbour

Zzippy

Posted this in the Galway forum, but thought it would be of interest here too.
Galway Harbour frozen over this morning (seawater)

http://flickr.com/photos/bradan99/3176717410/

http://flickr.com/photos/bradan99/3176717704/

http://flickr.com/photos/bradan99/3176040991/

highdef

:eek:

Mothman

:eek:

Trogdor

WOW! There was some sea ice washed up along the shore earlier on the east coast too

Lumi

Great pics - Cheers!!

Pigeon Reaper

sorry to burst the bubble but it's freshwater from the river thats icing up. Same happens on the Tolka estuary around Clontarf. The fresh water doesn't always mix when it's calm and the tide is falling. It'll tend to ride over the denser saltwater and freeze. Impressive pictures still.

forkassed

Cool

Danno

Very impressive ice for a west coast harbour.

Zzippy

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

sorry to burst the bubble but it's freshwater from the river thats icing up. Same happens on the Tolka estuary around Clontarf. The fresh water doesn't always mix when it's calm and the tide is falling. It'll tend to ride over the denser saltwater and freeze. Impressive pictures still.

No bubble burst mate, no problem. Its just that the river doesn't flow into the harbour, the only inflow is from the sea when the sluice gate is opened, and that water is from the sea. There would be a fair freshwater influence alright as the Corrib enters the sea nearby, but it would be slightly brackish at most and already mixed before it gets through the sluice.

Monasette

As zzippy said, it's purely seawater in the Galway Docks. There was a little bit of ice in the Docks nearly 3 years ago (http://www.flickr.com/photos/monasette/107288900/) when the temperature dropped as low as it has been for the last week (http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/03/03/story247428.html).

As per my Flickr comment, great shots.

Little bit of info on the freezing point of saltwater here - http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Re-St/Sea-Water-Freezing-of.html

Yes sea water will freeze at or below -4c but it would have to be a continous several hours of that temp.
Currently that temp is being widely experienced from about 8pm in the evening to 8am in the morning.

That harbour water as other posters have said is isolated to an extent so it is still ie no waves or current so it is not surprising that it froze to be honest.

Theres ice on the beaches here for the past 2 mornings in a row.A brook over the road from me is frozen over and there is ice floating on the avoca river which is something that hasnt been seen on it since january '87...though that time it froze in the harbour [it's open to the sea fully].

CianRyan

Lovely pictures, its great to see this kinda stuff.

Pigeon Reaper

Zzippy wrote: »

No bubble burst mate, no problem. Its just that the river doesn't flow into the harbour, the only inflow is from the sea when the sluice gate is opened, and that water is from the sea. There would be a fair freshwater influence alright as the Corrib enters the sea nearby, but it would be slightly brackish at most and already mixed before it gets through the sluice.

Then it's pretty impressive even if it's only brackish. Nothing's frozen around Clontarf probably because of the strong tidal streams.

Trogdor

Here's a picture of the ice washed up at Booterstown dart station yesterday, was back again today stretching along the shoreline

quotaj

Hi,

I saw the docks frozen over alright - pretty damn cool! You could even throw large stones at it and it wouldn't break!

However, I believe that it was the freshwater that froze, not the seawater....

There is no river or that going into the docks but it is a large catchment for rain and maybe even the odd storm-water pipe. There is very little movement of the water inside the docks, they gates are only open on high tide so there's little to no change in tide levels to encourage water to flow out. Therefor a lot of this freshwater stays... and it being less dense that saltwater, it rests on the top.

Q.E.D.

Deleted User wrote:

Yes sea water will freeze at or below -4c but it would have to be a continous several hours of that temp.
Currently that temp is being widely experienced from about 8pm in the evening to 8am in the morning.

That harbour water as other posters have said is isolated to an extent so it is still ie no waves or current so it is not surprising that it froze to be honest.

It may be -4C air-temperature.... but I wouldn't expect the sea temperature around Galway to go below +6'C (ish...).

Monasette

The water in the Docks is sea-water - the locks gates are opened at high tides but they are left open for to allow shiips in and out - the levels change as seawater flows in and out - I used to live in an paratment overlooking the harbour - it is definitely seawater swishing in and out.

Certainly, there is some freshwater mixed in with the seawater from the Corrib outflow nearby (there wasn't any rainfall during the cold snap) but the biggest factor was probably that the water in the Docks is relatively still, allowing ice to form.

Ice formed in Lough Atalia too and it contains seawater too, which flows in from the channel under the rail-bridge. The ice formed up at the end of Lough atalia nearest the Eye Cinema which the water is calm (http://www.flickr.com/photos/monasette/3180859424/).