I know it sounds like the name for a new brand of cereal but it seems to be the latest in our two week northern weather marathon here! A series of loud bangs that shook our homes, woke us up all over the city again in the early morning hours – we all arose to check our roofs convinced a tree had just fallen through…but no it was a bunch of cryoseisms – frost quakes!! Well it was -32c last night – apparently colder than Mars.
First freezing rain, then an ice storm and now a frost quake – what’s next? A ‘frostnado’!
We here in Canada tend to have a pre occupation with weather in the winter so if you want to know more have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryoseism
Womanseyeview's Blog 
How extraordinary! Nature is a strange old thing these days! Try to stay safe and warm. Sending you some sunshine from Jamaica! 🙂
Are you in Winnipeg? (or thereabouts) I’ve snivelled a couple of times in my blog this winter about the weather in Toronto, but I am always aware that it’s springtime compared to what is going on in much of the country. As a born Montrealer, one-time Calgarian and for a period frequent Arctic traveller… I should take T.O. in stride!
I’m just a snivel ( great word!) north of Toronto and yes we do tend to go on a bit … But this year I think we should cut ourselves some slack given all the crazy weather and power failures. Really enjoying your blog!
north of Toronto gets significantly more snow, quite an abrupt change — we all have new vocab now, ‘frost quake’ and the latest ‘polar vortex’ , good grief — thanks for your visits and your comments
It is a challenging winter already…enjoying the photos on your blog.
Here in northern Minnesota, we were close to -30C, nice to find your blog, Annie
Right about now I’d gladly trade you weather experiences!
In So. Florida we don’t get very many of those.lol But I’d love to have the experience sometime.
Wow – you really do have serious, serious weather! One event like this would keep us Brits going a decade on weather stories. ‘Weather’, which I’m sure you know, is after all our favourite topic! Keep warm.
PS. Storms, gales, rain and more rain here at mo.
You do seem to be getting a real hammering in England and Wales too! Hope you are keeping dry.
The picture is beautiful. Frost quakes are a really intriguing phenomena!
Thank you. Apparently the quakes are very rare.
Incredible. Was that your first ever experience of a frost quake? The other day I learned about the phenomenon of a ‘seiche’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiche from another blogger and now I am learning about cryoseisms. Also discovered via our newspaper that “distant flashing lights” happened during at least one of our major earthquakes; seems they can occur with a cryoseism too. Gosh,as you say, what next?
Apparently they are rare occurrences so yes it is the first experience for me – there were more last night but with a warming trend perhaps they’re over…seems to be more extreme weather related events around the world these days. Now I too know about a ‘seiche’..and they seem to occur in the Great Lakes that surround us so I can show off at the next scrabble game! Thanks.
Oh yes we have some great words for Scrabble, now! I play Words with Friends online with my sister, so I will try my new words if I get a chance.