Frozen floodwater

[Scythe13]

Living in Taunton, I can tell you exactly what has been happening to part around here.

The OH says that pavements are cracking and crumbling all round the town centre. I'm still to check that out, but scientifically, it makes sense.

The temp dropped below zero already and.....no freezing! Don't forget, PURE H2O freezes at 0 degrees. Unclean water will freeze at a lower temp. Flood water is never pure h20, so will need VERY low temps to freeze it up. Further more, a lot of the water around here is very fast moving on the surface, so the water friction and natural drop and rise of hot and cold water, will reduce the level of freezing even further.

As for the rural land....that could well freeze. But it shouldn't be that harsh. Most piped are going to be screwed up with the natural freezing.....as they are every year.

The part that interests me the most is trees. Will the extreme freeze damage and kill certain types of tree? If so, that's a huge damager to the eco system. Couple that with the damage a falling tree can do to power lines, houses, etc. I know trees can cope with frozen ground. But with the amount of water in the ground, the roots will be getting crushed (water expands when frozen, remember).

I think the effects of the frozen ground water are going to be an unknown issue.

Let's just hope that the freeze doesn't happen until the water is a reasonable distance away, under ground.