Sunday Morning Short: Winter Thunder

During my recent trip to Zion National Park last weekend I witnessed the making of the rare Winter Thunder…

(See the entire Sunday Morning Short collection)

This video was filmed at the Temple of Sinawava parking lot. I had spent the early morning exploring a few other locations within Zion Canyon and while photographing an unnamed waterfalls near by I heard what sounded like thunder. As I drove toward the Temple of Sinawava I could see that there was a large section of ice that had frozen to the cliff wall on the western side of the valley. This section usually makes the waterfall that you can hike behind near the start of the Narrow’s riverside walk. The morning sun was now hitting the ice full force and melting it. Just as this section of cliff wall came into view I saw a large section of ice break loose and crash onto the rock ledge below it and creating the thunder.

I was fortunate enough to have the parking lot all to myself, so I quickly set up the camera and started recording a video hoping to catch more ice coming crashing down. As you can see from the start of the video, the areas that are wet looking below the ice is what had already come crashing down prior. And eventually a multiple other sections came down within the next five minutes.

It was quite amazing to hear complete silence (something that modern digital recording systems still can’t actually record) and then hear this thunderous clap reverberate through the valley.

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