Ker-PLOP! Defrosting the Freezer

After four days, I realize this is sort of a "water is wet" thread of posts, but hey, what do you expect after an extended weekend of "cabin fever"? The frost roll, as I've come to call the growth hanging over our front easterly eve, continued to grow each day. (Contrary to what I said in the Monday post, it's made not only of snow but also of gathering frost that crystallizes when the relatively warmer air seeping from the eve vents of our long covered porch meets the sub-zero arctic air sifting across the snow-covered roof line.)

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I drew this conclusion when the drooping "mor-ang" (meringue) continued to steadily grow over two days of no snowfall and little wind but continued near-zero temps at night. That means this growth is quite different than the more common "snow gutter curl" created by wind during blizzards and gusting winds or the "snow slides" that gradually occur as snow begins to inch down a roof.

This is like the frost in a freezer. Remember your mom's refrigerator freezer before they invented "frost free"? Remember how the space in the compartment got smaller and smaller over time until finally you couldn't even close the freezer door? Remember that round mass of frost on the front edge of each shelf? Remember how you had to chip away with a butter knife just to get out a half-empty, freezer-burnt carton of ice cream?

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You don't remember that....? Well, in my boyhood home our freezer got like that every three or four months, and then Mom would spend an afternoon "defrosting" it. We found all kinds of stuff in the frost. It was sort of like an arctic expedition. (She once found a Woolly Mammoth in there with undigested grass in its mouth—oh, wait, that's a different childhood memory.)

At any rate, the frost growth all along the front of my house this week was like a giant frosted freezer growing by several inches each day.

Last night it was about two feet thick from top to bottom and about ten inches thick from front to back. Just as I was wondering how long it could sustain its own weight, I got up this morning and it had fallen in the night. I'm so glad it didn't do that while I was measuring it.

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The temperatures have warmed up. Today was "shirt sleeve" weather with a high of 13 degrees. No more measurable frost growth. End of story. (This last picture looks sort of like my mom’s kitchen floor did when she defrosted the freezer.)

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