Ice drift, icebreaker, freeze-up … All these words sound similar and have much in common, but mean completely different things. And if an icebreaker is a ship that breaks the ice crust to establish navigation in the winter season, then ice drift and freeze-up cause complete bewilderment for many. Freezing - is it when ice moves along the river? Or is it ice drift? Or maybe an ice drift is a ship, but then what is an icebreaker?
The word freeze has two meanings. The first, and most often used, is the establishment of an ice cover on a river or body of water. Every winter, weather conditions permitting, first a small ice appears on the rivers, and then the surface is covered with a strong crust of ice. It is the moment when the river "rises" and is called freeze-up. Depending on the region, width, depth of the reservoir and the speed of the current, this process can last from several days to several weeks.
Freezing occurs not only on rivers. Lakes, ponds, swamps, streams and even deep puddles are also covered with an ice crust and, therefore, are subject to freeze-up. Of course, this term is often used precisely in relation to large reservoirs and rivers, but no one bothers to apply it to smaller objects of nature. Shallow lakes and shallow rivers freeze much faster than full-flowing large rivers with a fast current, and in spring they also quickly begin to thaw, freeing themselves from the ice cap.
The word freeze-up also has a second meaning - the period itself, during which the river or lake is under the ice. In warm regions, it can last no more than a month, and in cities where the temperature in winter drops low and frosts last for a long time - it lasts more than six months. It should be noted that warm weather or a fast river flow can significantly reduce the freeze-up time, and sometimes even avoid it.
Do not confuse freeze-up and ice drift. These two phenomena, although accompanying one another, are completely different. Ice drift is the movement of ice floes on the water surface. Autumn ice drift precedes freeze-up, the reason for it is the separation of ice floes from the edges of the coast, where the water freezes much faster. In spring, when the air temperature rises, the ice crust begins to thin and breaks apart under the influence of the current. Thus, ice drift begins in autumn and in spring is its final stage.
