Thread by @gauravsabnis

Booked airbnb in the Catskills for a bubble weekend. A couple of folks couldn't make it. So it's just @k_rupal, me, my buddy in a house that was originally built as a Youth Hostel in the 60s and used to sleep 20! Feels like the start of a slasher movie. 😂😂

It's -11C here right now (RealFeel -20C) demonstrating why the airbnb host reminded us multiple times to keep a tiny stream on in the kitchen sink faucet all night. To prevent the old pipes of this very budget-built ex Youth Hostel from bursting.

Sitting in this living room, looking at old pictures from the 60s & 70s when this was a YH, imagining backpackers paying $7/night, warmed by this very fireplace after stepping through ankle deep snow off a tiny remote road. Feeling a bit like Jack Torrance.

Put an ice tray with water outside. 2 hours later, not just frozen solid, but some cubes expanded almost like muffins!

Thinking about the physics reason for those ice cubes (and only some) being so ultra expanded. It's not like ice keeps expanding as it gets colder. Speed of freezing perhaps? But still not sure why so uneven.
(It was -11C outside)

I think I've figured out the most likely reason. There were random flurries in that time. Although I had put the tray under the porch, so not under falling snow, air might have made some errant flakes land spottily on the tray. Explains size & unevenness.

Tho it would take a LOT of snowflakes to make that level of difference and it was just a light flurry, not a Trump rally.

Gonna repeat the experiment tomorrow if it stays this cold.