'Thousands of pounds of ice' flow down Milwaukee River, capture attention of passersby
MILWAUKEE -- With temperatures wandering into the 50s, there is one seasonal phenomenon that has people grabbing their cameras. Ice jams!
Ice jam on Milwaukee River
Nobody was fooled by the warm February day Monday, Feb. 26 -- especially not Kaitlin Reinartz and Jennifer Callaghan.
"It's just a blip on the radar," Reinartz said. "They've been crashing ashore."
The warm temperatures are causing river ice to break apart and jam up on waterways. Reinartz and Callaghan both work at Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center. The migrating ice jams have been something of an attraction.
Ice jam on Milwaukee River
Ice jam on Milwaukee River
"It seems like everybody has just been enjoying watching this phenomenon happen," Callaghan said.
"This down here is the Milwaukee River. There is the shore, where you see the big chunks of ice," Reinartz said.
Reinartz is a forester -- and said the ice may cause damage to trees and banks, but it is all to be expected.
Ice jam on Milwaukee River
"From a human's point of view, I love it. I think it's so beautiful and so cool to see a 24-inch chuck of ice go flowing down the river," Reinartz said.
On Monday, we flew SKYFOX over ice jams in Cedarburg and Milwaukee.
"These are massive pieces of ice that are flowing down the river. We're talking thousands of pounds of ice," Callaghan said.
Large pieces of drift wood are also among the items being caught up in the flow.
Ice jam on Milwaukee River