When the never-ending sub-zero temperatures keep knocking at your door, you sometimes simply need to fling open the door and say, “let’s party!” As the air warmed up to a balmy –14°F (-25.5°C) on Monday, just a few degrees off the warmest temperature of the day, I decided the home office afternoon coffee break needed to take place outdoors. The arctic blast prompted Minnesota’s Governor to cancel Monday classes for schools throughout the State. With no sign of above-zero temperatures until Wednesday, most Minnesota schools have canceled classes for students on Tuesday, as well.
In the meantime, I decided to recruit one of my teens as my assistant for the outdoor coffee break activities. The local hardware store told me soap bubbles were a popular item, so I knew we were not alone in examining their response to the frigid air.
While our results were not as spectacular as photographer Angela Kelly’s bubbles, we still enjoyed watching them float off while slowly freezing and “shattering” in mid-air. Capturing one on the end of the bubble wand allowed for a closer view.
One gentle puff toward the fragile sphere prompted it to crack like an egg, with its ragged semi-opaque shell momentarily remaining on the wand, before dissipating into shredded frozen soap fragments.
When the novelty of blowing bubbles in sub-zero temps wore off, it was time for the boiling water toss. We added a little food coloring to spice things up. Then we headed outside again.
One …
Two …
Three …
It was akin to a fireworks show … oohs and aahs were the response as the boiling water turned to a frosty arcing powder the instant it hit the freezing air.
An explanation of why the hot water vaporizes as it is tossed, along with videos of others performing the boiling water-to-snow trick, can be found in this Slate.com article.
Do it again?! OK, how about in blue this time?
[Click on any photo in the gallery below to enlarge it.]
How are you keeping cabin fever at bay during this far-reaching cold snap?
Ciao! ~ Kat
Travel. Garden. Eat. 
35 responses to “Sub-Zero Fun in Minnesota”
Frozen soap bubbles, freezing water vapor from a sauce pan! Who knew? Thanks for posting this! 🙂
Very cool in more ways than one!
LikeLike
THANKS for keeping me connected to northern Minnesota.
LikeLike
Of course, friend! 🙂
LikeLike
This is why I moved away from Minnesota in the early 80s and never looked back. What does surprise me, though, is that school would be closed because of the cold weather. I never remember that happening when I was growing up, even on the “tundra” in the north west corner of MN. I have permanently frost bitten knees to prove it, being to vain to wear pants under my dress when I walked home from school. 🙂
LikeLike
I think those incidents of kids suffering frostbite or standing at bus stops without proper clothing (sometimes by choice, often by lack) prompted it when the windchills dipped in the 20’s and 30’s below zero. This winter, however, we’ve only had one 2-hour delay. However, I do love the beauty of the winter landscapes and would miss them if I didn’t live here …. that being said, winters could often shorten their stay, or at least let Spring have an appearance! Thanks for stopping by!
LikeLike
Ha. So cool! I’m glad people are having fun with the situation.
LikeLike
What else can you do?! 🙂 Find ways to embrace it! We didn’t get out this week to do this again, but it is fun …..
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Travel. Garden. Eat. and commented:
Sub-zero temps this week warrant a look back at last year’s sub-zero fun with boiling water.
LikeLike
[…] We know all sorts of ways to have fun when it’s a long winter. You may recall my winter post on blowing frozen bubbles, tossing boiling water … over 70 days of sub-zero temps in one […]
LikeLike
bubbles freeze?? that is fantastic.. you make me want to go stand in my freezer for a while and try it lol
LikeLike
We have had waaaay too many days of potential sub-zero fun up north this winter!
LikeLike
Fun stuff. I haven’t seen the bubbles before, which I’ll need to try if we hit below zero (F) temps again here. Safer than the boiling water as well!
LikeLike
That colored water toss shot is wicked! You were smart to think of the dye. That’ll make it into my next experiment. 🙂
LikeLike
The amazing versatility of food coloring.
LikeLike
Kathy (above) mentioned you on the post I did about freezing bubbles just the other day 🙂 Got your blog address from her and had to come check out your frozen fun, too. I see you were smart enough to wear “real” gloves. I just wore thin cloth ones and my poor fingers about froze off 😉 Hooray for staving off cabin fever!
LikeLike
If we can’t beat it, for sanity’s sake, we must join it!
LikeLike
Oh, how fun is this, Kat? You are such a sport! I saw that Heather–you know Heather, yes?–was making snow bubbles, too. We northerners must be a hardy lot to discover Fun in the midst of such bone-chilling cold. You win an award for this!
LikeLike
I do “know” Heather! (and always enjoy her blog posts, as well — in fact, I probably discovered her through the comments on your page!) We have to find some way to make the bitter cold not so bitter.
LikeLike
It seems that You got real winter there.
LikeLike
It was so cold for so long — really challenging with 5 days of school canceled since the beginning of December for either winter snow storm or dangerous cold temperatures!
LikeLike
Our old house is so drafty, I could do that boiling water trick in the living room, and it would work!
So nice to see you all having fun. 🙂
LikeLike
I can totally relate to the old drafty house! Whatever room is furthest from the thermostat is like moving to Siberia!
LikeLike
Incredible..
LikeLike
It has been way too cold Kat!!! Can’t wait for our upcoming heat wave!
LikeLike
Very cool, icy cool, in fact 🙂
I was wondering whether cold water wouldn’t freeze even more quickly than hot boiling water? Loved that tinge of food coloring in there. I may try that this afternoon, although it has “warmed” up to 0 F since this morning.
LikeLike
I read some of the articles on the science behind it, and only hot water does this trick, due to the stark contrast in air and water temps apparently. My gosh, it’s shorts weather for you! 🙂
LikeLike
Yup – it will be 30 F tomorrow, totally going on Springbreak then…:-)
LikeLike
So cool. My daughter did it, but apparently the water wasn’t hot enough. Might have to try it again today. I know they did it in school a few years back when we had some extreme temperatures. We were about the only school in session, which was really interesting since we had a fairly unreliable furnace. Ha!
LikeLike
Oh what fun, Kat! I have to show this post to my kids, they’re gonna wanna to do these experiments instantly:) Of course, here in North Texas, it’s cold but not quite enough…Keep these coming our way! Happy New Year to you all.
LikeLike
Food coloring….brilliant. stay warm-ish
LikeLike
Wish I was further along with learning the tricks of a DSLR (a Canon Rebel — my Christmas present from my parents!), reading for now and hoping to find time to really practice. So unfortunately, mainly automatic settings while I figure things out. However, I know I couldn’t have captured these shots with the old camera! If you can beat the cold, you simply have to join it (although I swear this morning seems even worse out there). Looking to warmer temps ahead!
LikeLike
WHAT A TOTALLY – WAY MINUS COOOL post Kat!!! Love it!
LikeLike
Zachary thought this was really cool and wants to try it…think we’re still cold enough today to give it a shot!
LikeLike
You definitely should — have a couple pots boiling, so when you do one and he says “Let’s do it again”, you can 🙂
LikeLike
This weather is so totally foreign to us… my wife has never seen snow in real life, and our town also no snow in human history… But you look adapted to handling it well! Our coldest days in winter is about -3 degrees C, and only one or two of those at most a year. And now: 37 degrees, it is HOT here…
LikeLike