A BUS passenger who glanced out the window was astonished to see a giant white disc spinning on the surface of the River Dee in Denbighshire.
Gary Dixon was so astounded that, after alighting, he doubled back a mile along the river to find out more.
The 62-year-old from Flint had been set for a winter's day-out in Llangollen.
Instead he was drawn to the strange sight on the river, which turned out to be a circular sheet of ice he estimated at 50ft across.
The perfectly symmetrical disc was slowly rotating anti-clockwise on the water. Gary had stumbled across a rare phenomenon that usually only occurs in rivers in much colder parts of the world.
As they look too perfect to be natural, they've been dubbed a type of UFO - an Unidentified Floating Object.
"I first spotted it through trees from the bus," said Gary. "I thought, bloody hell, what on earth was that! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. So, from Llangollen, I walked back east along the old railway track to find it. I stayed and watched it for about half-an-hour it was absolutely amazing. I'd never seen anything like it before.
"It was fascinating to watch the disc as it slowly spun around several times - I estimated it was rotating at Imph. A sign on a tree nearby said there was a whirlpool in the river, so I assumed that's what was causing it."
Ice discs have been spotted everywhere from Russia to China and Scandinavia. They can also be found in the USA, where they were first reported on the Mianus River, Connecticut, in 1895. Some of the largest ever recorded have been seen in North America: in January 2019, a 298-foot-wide ice disc on the Presumpscot River, Maine, caused widespread excitement. Two years later this was dwarfed by a monster 650ft spinning disc discovered via satellite imagery on Canada's Taltson River, Northwest Territories.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583575389/1735192288/articles/EUH8ChXjH1735210075669/2303755213.jpg]
Alternative names include ice circles and ice pans. They've also been called ice carousels. Gary dubbed his find an "ice turntable".
In the UK they are rare but they do sporadically appear: examples were recorded in Wales in December 2008 and another the following month on River Otter in Devon. You're more likely to see them in the Scottish Highlands: in January 2023, a hiker stumbled across an ice disc near Beinn Bhuidhe.
Scientists have a number of explanations for the curious phenomenon. A 1997 paper published by the Royal Meteorological Society suggested that river currents create a whirlpool effect around a chunk of ice, slowly eroding it until it becomes circular.
Ice discs may also form ...
Gary Dixon was so astounded that, after alighting, he doubled back a mile along the river to find out more.
The 62-year-old from Flint had been set for a winter's day-out in Llangollen.
Instead he was drawn to the strange sight on the river, which turned out to be a circular sheet of ice he estimated at 50ft across.
The perfectly symmetrical disc was slowly rotating anti-clockwise on the water. Gary had stumbled across a rare phenomenon that usually only occurs in rivers in much colder parts of the world.
As they look too perfect to be natural, they've been dubbed a type of UFO - an Unidentified Floating Object.
"I first spotted it through trees from the bus," said Gary. "I thought, bloody hell, what on earth was that! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. So, from Llangollen, I walked back east along the old railway track to find it. I stayed and watched it for about half-an-hour it was absolutely amazing. I'd never seen anything like it before.
"It was fascinating to watch the disc as it slowly spun around several times - I estimated it was rotating at Imph. A sign on a tree nearby said there was a whirlpool in the river, so I assumed that's what was causing it."
Ice discs have been spotted everywhere from Russia to China and Scandinavia. They can also be found in the USA, where they were first reported on the Mianus River, Connecticut, in 1895. Some of the largest ever recorded have been seen in North America: in January 2019, a 298-foot-wide ice disc on the Presumpscot River, Maine, caused widespread excitement. Two years later this was dwarfed by a monster 650ft spinning disc discovered via satellite imagery on Canada's Taltson River, Northwest Territories.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583575389/1735192288/articles/EUH8ChXjH1735210075669/2303755213.jpg]
Alternative names include ice circles and ice pans. They've also been called ice carousels. Gary dubbed his find an "ice turntable".
In the UK they are rare but they do sporadically appear: examples were recorded in Wales in December 2008 and another the following month on River Otter in Devon. You're more likely to see them in the Scottish Highlands: in January 2023, a hiker stumbled across an ice disc near Beinn Bhuidhe.
Scientists have a number of explanations for the curious phenomenon. A 1997 paper published by the Royal Meteorological Society suggested that river currents create a whirlpool effect around a chunk of ice, slowly eroding it until it becomes circular.
Ice discs may also form ...
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Daily Post (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 26, 2024