Monday, January 12, 2009

Freezing in Dresden

As we move to more and more consecutive days without getting above freezing, the Elbe becomes more and more frozen. On Sunday I walked down and took some photos. The local newspaper had the photo on the left recently, from the winter of 1928/1929. In February of 1929 the Elbe completely froze over so that people could actually walk from Neustadt to Altstadt over the river. pretty cool!


On the right is a picture I took on Sunday. That's a sheet of ice there, but it doesn't go nearly all the way across, and you wouldn't dare try to walk on much of it.
It's only happened one time since 1929, in the 60s, that the Elbe has completely frozen across. There's been some speculation that it happens less and less these days because of pollution of the rivers lowering the freezing point. Unfortunately the forecast this week is for highs just over freezing, so this won't be the year either.



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