00:00This winter, parts of the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay looked more like the Arctic,
00:05and that is not something you see every year.
00:08If you live near the water, you probably did a double take because salt water is not supposed to freeze
00:13easily.
00:14We all know fresh water freezes at 32 degrees, but salt water, it usually does not freeze until about 28
00:21.4 degrees,
00:22just a few degrees colder, but in this region, that difference is huge.
00:25In places like the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, winters are often maybe a little more marginal.
00:31Cold, yes, but not usually cold enough long enough to freeze large stretches of salt water.
00:37Now here is what makes it even a little more interesting.
00:39The upper parts of both bays are less salty because rivers feed into them.
00:44That water is a little closer to fresh, so it freezes faster.
00:48The farther south you go toward the ocean, the saltier the water gets, and the harder it is to freeze.
00:53And yet, in early February, we saw tremendous ice in the northern Chesapeake.
00:57Ice stretched for miles across nearly the entire Delaware Bay, the most in more than a decade.
01:02So when the cold locks in just long enough, even salt water can surrender.
01:06And this winter, it certainly did.
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