CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — If anyone was looking for a new way to describe how cold it is in Chicago right now, National Weather Service Meteorologist Ricky Castro may be able to help. He told WBBM the region appears to be cold enough to start producing "frost quakes."
Frost quakes are a relatively rare weather phenomenon and are sometimes called ice quakes or cryoseisms, but the cold snap currently gripping Chicago is exactly the kind of weather that can produce them, Castro said.
"When shallow groundwater freezes suddenly, it expands and then causes the surrounding rocks and soil to crack," he said. "It's usually associated with extreme, cold temperatures such as what we've been having."
It's possible that Chicagoans might have heard a frost quake already, Castro said, due to a wet December in which not a single day was below freezing — followed by this deep freeze.
He pointed out, though, that these subzero temperatures can cause houses to expand and contract, which can also make cracking sounds.
Because the quakes aren't registered on seismographs, Castro said officials generally need to receive a concentration of reports in a single area in order for claims of frost quakes to be more credible.
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