Representational Image.
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the cloudless sky and 100-degree day. Until a basketball-sized chunk of ice came flying out of it, whizzing Earthward with a sound like a bomb falling before plunging through the roof of Monica Savath's Modesto, Calif., home.
"The first thing I did was step out, look, like 'What the hell?'" Savath told Sacramento CBS affiliate KHTK. She hurried into her garage, where she found "a block of ice, water dripping" from a gaping hole in the ceiling.
No one was hurt, though the ice damaged Savath's car and left a huge hole to patch.
And Savath and her neighbors were left wondering: "What on Earth happened?" she asked.
Sacramento meteorologist Jason Clapp told the Los Angeles Times that the incident is definitely not weather related.
Modesto is in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures soaring into the triple-digits, making the formation of ice a near scientific impossibility. The Federal Aviation Administration told the Associated Press that they visited Savath's home, but have no explanations for the ice. FAA officials haven't heard any similar accounts in the area.
The most common non-meteorological sources of mysterious falling frozen stuff are airplanes. Occasionally, airplanes will accidentally leak bathroom sewage mid-air (they're supposed to dispose of it after the plane lands). The phenomenon is known as "blue ice," because the frozen waste is tinged blue by chemicals in the toilets.
But the ice that fell onto Savath's home wasn't blue, which seems to rule out the toilet ice explanation.
Jim Mathews, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, believes that ice collecting on a jetliner is the most likely culprit. He told the AP that the same moisture that causes the white tails behind planes can freeze and collect on the plane. If it becomes dislodged, it could hurtle earthward at speeds high enough to prevent it from melting before it hurtled into the unsuspecting Earth below.
"Good thing it didn't hit anybody," he said. "Boy, that could really do a number."
"The first thing I did was step out, look, like 'What the hell?'" Savath told Sacramento CBS affiliate KHTK. She hurried into her garage, where she found "a block of ice, water dripping" from a gaping hole in the ceiling.
No one was hurt, though the ice damaged Savath's car and left a huge hole to patch.
And Savath and her neighbors were left wondering: "What on Earth happened?" she asked.
Sacramento meteorologist Jason Clapp told the Los Angeles Times that the incident is definitely not weather related.
Modesto is in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures soaring into the triple-digits, making the formation of ice a near scientific impossibility. The Federal Aviation Administration told the Associated Press that they visited Savath's home, but have no explanations for the ice. FAA officials haven't heard any similar accounts in the area.
The most common non-meteorological sources of mysterious falling frozen stuff are airplanes. Occasionally, airplanes will accidentally leak bathroom sewage mid-air (they're supposed to dispose of it after the plane lands). The phenomenon is known as "blue ice," because the frozen waste is tinged blue by chemicals in the toilets.
But the ice that fell onto Savath's home wasn't blue, which seems to rule out the toilet ice explanation.
Jim Mathews, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, believes that ice collecting on a jetliner is the most likely culprit. He told the AP that the same moisture that causes the white tails behind planes can freeze and collect on the plane. If it becomes dislodged, it could hurtle earthward at speeds high enough to prevent it from melting before it hurtled into the unsuspecting Earth below.
"Good thing it didn't hit anybody," he said. "Boy, that could really do a number."
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