Defying Gravity

I took another look at the icicles on the back of my house today to see if they had fallen yet.  Much to my surprise they hung even lower than a couple of days ago.  At first glance I thought the snow had slid further down the roof, but upon closer examination it appears to be approximately where it was.  Only the icicles are longer.  It seems the bright afternoon sun melts a little of the snow, which runs down the roof under the remaining snow to drip down the back side of the overhanging snow, and forms ever lengthening icicles.  In comparison to the photos of a day or two ago, the end icicle is about a foot longer now.  How long can the snow hold together under the ever additional weight?  The icicle probably runs all the way down from the roof in back of the snow, and thus is attached to the roof.  The snow alone couldn’t possibly hold all that weight.

The second photo is of the bank in my front yard plowed there from cleaning the driveway area.  It is about five feet high and seven or eight feet thick.  When the kids were young they would have had it riddled with snow caves and forts.  Alas, they grew up one day.

The third photo is to the left of the former and closer to the house.  That’s my neighbor John’s home in the background.  There is a small patch at the top of the left hand end of this bank, right in front of the apple tree, that is all that can be seen of the top of Doc’s dog house.