Throwing Water at 40 below zero

With the temperatures not getting any warmer than -30 for about a week now, it has been a frustrating Christmas break as far as trapping is concerned. Sarah and I have had to find other ways to entertain ourselves. One of those goofy things cabin fever can incite in you was to go outside and "throw water" in the freezing (understatement) weather. As it can be hard to explain what water does at these temps, I figured I'd take some videos/pics and post 'em. Again - gotta find something to do when stuck indoors. :)

On this particular day, the temp was recorded at the airstrip here in Russian Mission as -45, ambient. Wind chill was -62 or some such. When it gets THAT cold, a few degrees here or there doesn't matter much. Not to your skin it doesn't.

Anyways, Sarah got two cups of water ready (heated) and put food coloring in one of them. I captured the tossing on video, and then took some still images out of the clips. At first there is a bunch of steam and then as the water (...that just seconds before was almost boiling, mind you) turns almost instantly to ice crystals you can see the ice chunks' little vapor trails as they plummet to the snow. The actual amount of water that hits the snow as ice is almost nothing compared to what's in the cup at the toss, because so much is lost as vapor, and so the water almost disappears in the process. All this is accompanied by a loud hissing noise, and some crackling as the water undergoes a 250-degree temperature change in an instant. Here are the still images in sequence: