Amazing upside-down ice spike is spotted in Shropshire garden bird bath
This strange spear of ice was discovered growing vertically out of a garden bird bath in Shropshire.
The upside-down icicle was formed by a rare natural phenomenon – known by scientists as 'ice spikes'.
Dave Gittus spotted the 30cm shard sticking out of his friend's bird bath in Caldercrofts, Newport.
It was about 2cm in diameter.
He made the discovery yesterday morning.
He said: "I went round to my friend Barrie's house and he asked me to have a look at something.
"I thought he was having me on. I thought he must have pushed a stick in the ice or something."
Mr Gittus added: "But when I looked closer it was all ice, about 10 or 12 inches long.
"I didn't have a clue what had caused it as I've never seen anything like it before."
Ice spikes tend to form in containers such as bird baths and pet drinking bowls where the water freezes quickly, rather than in much larger bodies of water such as lakes and ponds.
As the ice freezes fast under cold conditions, the surface can get covered except for a small hole.
Water expands when it freezes. As freezing continues, the expanding ice under the surface forces the remaining water up through the hole and it freezes around the edge forming a hollow spike.
Eventually, the whole thing freezes and the spike is left.
Small, less obvious ice spikes can be seen to have formed on ice cube containers in freezers due to the design of the containers.
Temperatures across Shropshire plummeted to -4C on Wednesday night, making the formation of ice spikes more likely.
