Seasonal ice discs starting to appear

Winter brings us many seasonal treats, one of the rarest to see are ice discs, spinning on bodies of water needing a perfect combination of conditions to form.

Such perfect circles are created when water flows faster on one side of the ice than on the other. This causes the ice to rotate, and as it turns the edges of the ice get ground down to form a circle.

In other areas the ice can be made to rotate by sinking meltwater or rising gases.

In order for these ice circles to form, temperatures must be very low for a long period of time. This is why they are mainly found in Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and the northern parts of the USA.

But circling ice discs have also been observed in the UK and Ireland. This one was spotted in County Durham in January 2019:

Also known as ice pancakes, these discs can be quite thin, so often break easily if under pressure, however, they can also bind together to form an ice sheet if conditions allow.