Ice Ice Baby Wild & Weird


Ice Ice Baby

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# Marauding mice and balls of ice and sharks on a golfing spree

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# Cicada swarms and Martian storms and fish walking out of the sea

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# Elks in trees and foaming seas and giant mayfly mobs

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-# Zombie snails and friendly whales and completely frozen frogs.

-What?

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# Wild and weird, wild and weird

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# Really, really wild and really, really weird

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# Wild and weird, wild and weird

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# Really, really wild and really, really wild and weird. #

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It's all things SNOW business today with the wall of ice that

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engulfed a town...

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The frog that has a really cool trick for surviving the winter...

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And the mysterious hailstone as big as a rugby ball

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that fell from the sky.

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You've got to love this country.

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One minute, here we are, basking in glorious sunshine.

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The next minute, it's a raging gale.

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WIND HOWLS

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Whoa.

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And then there is the potential for fog.

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FOG HORN

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SHE COUGHS

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And snow.

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Oh, isn't it pretty?

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And, of course, in the UK, we get a lot of rain.

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Yes, we do. Which is why I'm prepared.

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Hang on, where's my umbrella? Wait, stop, stop, stop!

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Don't even think about it.

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Spoilsport. All right, we'll go straight on to the hailstones.

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-Hailstones?!

-Yeah, I'll just get my protective headgear on.

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-Where did you get that from?

-OK, guys.

-Wait! Hold on, hold on.

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-Do not throw that. Bring that here.

-Wow.

-This is massive.

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Was he going to throw that at us?

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Yes, you think I'm wearing this for fun?

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But hailstones are tiny - this would knock you out!

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Yeah, it would and, believe me, one that size did

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fall from the sky and very nearly did knock someone out.

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-You don't believe me, do you?

-No.

-Here, have a look at this.

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It made the news.

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A grandfather has been hit by a big block of ice

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which fell from the sky while he was in his garden.

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-No way!

-Way. Keep watching.

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So, let me paint the picture.

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This is hail as you know it.

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Tiny balls of ice pelting down on the Earth.

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But hail can get even larger. So much so, it becomes like missiles.

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MAN: Woo-hoo!

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This is awesome!

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Now, imagine if something like this fell out of the sky.

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-You are kidding.

-It's true. It happened to a man in Bristol.

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Bristol? That's here in this country.

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-That happened here in the UK?

-Yeah.

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-Crikey. It's a bit close to home for my liking.

-Yes, and for this guy.

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-Who's that?

-David Gammon. Thought he'd had his bacon.

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HE CHUCKLES

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Too hammy?

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HE CHUCKLES

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It's now down to about the size of an orange,

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but nonetheless, travelling at 120mph or so, it comes as quite a shock.

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It is like being hit by a fast bowler with a cricket ball.

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Whoa, that would be painful.

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# Ice, ice, baby... #

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We need a BBC weather bod to explain all.

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# Ice, ice, baby... #

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-Who's that?

-That Darren Bett, one of the Met office's best.

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-Where's he going?

-Sorry, dodgy camera work.

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Pan back a sec to Darren. There you go, we're still doing his intro.

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No, just... Oh, now it's out of focus. Over to you, Darren.

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These large chunks of ice are very heavy.

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I don't know of any updrafts that can keep them up in the air

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and build them and grow them in the same way that a hailstorm can.

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Also, they seem to be coming from cloudless skies.

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-That's strange. No clouds?

-No.

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So, something else in the sky, possibly carrying water that

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if it escaped could freeze on its way to the ground. Is it a bird?

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-Is it a pl...

-Go on. Go on!

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-A plane!

-It's funny you say that.

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Who's that?

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That is the head of airworthiness at the Civil Aviation Authority.

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# Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away... #

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If the ice is completely clear,

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then we are pretty sure it's most likely not an aviation source.

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But sometimes we have reports of ice that is coloured.

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That usually suggests there is chemical content, which

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-we do use in treating toilet waste.

-So, top tip there.

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Beware of blue ice.

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It could have been flushed out of an aeroplane loo.

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# Let's fly awa-a-ay

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# And don't tell your mama! #

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-But according to the stats...

-What stats?

-In this. Ice Weekly?

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Only the coolest people read it.

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Anyway, it says here only 5% of reported cases of

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ice blocks in the UK can be linked to planes.

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So what about the other 95%? And, more importantly,

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the piece that hit poor David, could it have fallen from space?

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Interesting. You hit play. I will read this.

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It says here...

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Experts have named these unidentified falling

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objects as megacryometeors.

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With a name like that, it would suggest they came from space.

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But on closer inspection,

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they don't have enough dust or iron content to be typical meteors.

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For now, the scientists are actually out of ideas, so,

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for the moment, large chunks of ice falling to Earth remain a mystery.

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Give me that. What?

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"Large chunks of ice, blah, blah, blah, remain a mystery?"

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-That's a rubbish story, it doesn't have an ending.

-It isn't rubbish.

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Besides, one thing I do know for sure is if that chunk of ice were

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to hit you, it would really hurt.

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What, this one?

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-Well? Did it hurt?

-No, it didn't hurt, it was melted!

-Oh, well.

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Anyway. Moving on.

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Meet the wood frog,

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the only amphibian to be found north of the Arctic Circle.

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Pretty cold up there, Naomi. Weird place for a frog to live.

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You're right. So when winter comes...

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-It freezes solid?

-Yep!

-So, it dies.

-No.

-But it's frozen solid.

-Yep.

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But this frog has a secret superpower.

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-What, other than freezing itself solid and not dying?

-Yep.

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-Come this spring, it will thaw out and come back to life.

-No! What?

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-And how does it do it?

-Yeah, how on earth does it do it?

-Nobody knows.

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-And that's the end of the story.

-What?

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No, no, no, you can't stop there. What?

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It's not very nice, not getting an ending, is it?

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You are evil, Wilkinson. You sucked me in, knowing too well.

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I'm not that mean. I do know why it does that,

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I just wanted you to see what it feels like.

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-And? How does he do it?

-OK, I'll show you.

-Yes.

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As the first ice crystals begin to form on the frog's damp skin,

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its core temperature plummets.

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Its liver goes into overdrive, producing masses of glucose,

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a type of sugar which it pumps into its cells

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to act as a kind of antifreeze.

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At the same time, it releases a protein which attaches to the

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water molecules between those cells, so that when they freeze,

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ice crystals are too small to do any damage.

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It can stay in this suspended animation for weeks on end,

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until a change in temperature allows it to slowly thaw.

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So you could say...

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# The cold never bothered him anyway. #

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Oh, let it go, Naomi.

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So, basically, it can freeze and then defrost.

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-Yeah.

-That is pretty cool, actually. That is cool.

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Right, continuing today's theme of...

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# Ice, ice, baby... #

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let's agree that the final story will definitely have an ending.

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Agreed. You have one in mind?

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Yeah, a death-defying moving wall of ice that engulfs

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and terrorises a small town.

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-Yeah, sounds fab!

-You're sick.

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We're heading to Winnipeg in Canada,

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where residents of Ochre Beach woke up one morning to this.

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-MAN:

-This is absolutely crazy.

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I agree, that is absolutely crazy.

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As crazy as it sounds, a nine-metre-high wall of ice rose up

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and threatened to engulf an entire street.

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Residents like Miles Haverluck...

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-I am looking.

-No, "Haverluck".

-I told you, I am.

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-No, his name is Miles...

-I know, "Haverluck".

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-Have a look at what?

-This.

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-Hang on, who is telling this story?

-I am.

-Are you?

-Yeah, have a look.

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As Tim was saying, residents like Miles Haverluck...

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Ahem. Carry on.

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..could only stand back

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and watch in horror as their homes faced a tsunami of ice.

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I like to use the analogy of a freight train sort of coming at you,

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because it almost seemed like that. This happened in a matter of minutes.

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It was probably coming about the same as you would walk

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and it just kept on moving.

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You looked out thinking, "This has got to stop. This has got to stop."

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But it didn't.

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Miles's friend was filming as second by second the ice surged

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-towards the house.

-We're about to get engulfed by ice.

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It's about to come through the house.

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All these houses are getting engulfed by ice.

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But just when it seemed nothing could stop it,

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everything went quiet.

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Oh. That's me. That's me. Sorry. Sat on the mute button.

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It's so big, isn't it?

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I'll just turn that up.

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-MAN:

-Please...

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Oh. It is very quiet.

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-That is because the ice tsunami stopped.

-The ice tsunami?

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Please explain.

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When layers of snow build up, they compress and create a glacier.

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Their sheer mass makes them flow down through the landscape,

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carving up the solid rock below.

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It might travel just a few metres a year, but as this sped up

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footage shows, over time, this movement makes quite an impact.

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But these processes often take thousands of years, not minutes,

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so what caused such a dramatic and quick change in the ice

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at Ochre Beach?

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You'd do worse to ask this lady, Michelle.

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She's an expert on all things glaci...glacial...glaze...

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She knows everything about ice.

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In the middle of winter, the ice is all stuck together

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and it's very resistant to motion,

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but once it starts to break up in the springtime, it can start to move.

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And from what the local residents remember,

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the weather was changing quite dramatically as well that day.

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Hang on, who is telling this story?

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-I am.

-Oh. OK.

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They were predicting high winds.

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At four o'clock in the afternoon, it was as calm as calm could be

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and at six o'clock at night it was absolutely unbelievable.

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My daughter said, "Look at the trees, Dad."

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Our trees in the front lawn, they were doubled down.

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It looked like they were nearly touching the ground.

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I'm surprised they didn't break.

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Michelle, what possible effect could this have on our thawing lake?

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Often times when you have rapid warming in the springtime,

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you will also have stormy conditions, so as the ice starts to break up,

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if you have a big wind gust or storm event, it will start to

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push on that ice and it will get it to raft onto the shore.

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# You're as cold as ice... #

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I could see it just moving along the shoreline...

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# You're as cold as ice... #

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When it hits the land, the land has friction,

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so the ice that is the first to hit the land stops.

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MUSIC STARTS AGAIN

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And all the ice is piled up behind it, kind of crumbling on top of it.

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It looks like a slow wave that is coming ashore, but it's

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basically all the ice tumbling over the ice that has stopped.

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Fortunately, no-one was hurt, and once the ice melted,

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the town had the arduous task of rebuilding their houses.

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Totally weird.

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What are you doing?

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Well, I was just going to try out my new wall of ice

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-symbol for my weather map.

-Are you sure that's wise?

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Probably not, but what's the worst that could happen?

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RUMBLING

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Whoa!

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THEY SCREAM

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