Gary Dixon had been on a bus trip to Llangollen when he spotted the huge white disc spinning on the River Dee in Denbighshire, so he walked a mile back to the river to take a closer look
A bus passenger was left gobsmacked after spotting a massive white disc spinning on the River Dee in Denbighshire. Gary Dixon was so taken aback that he retraced his steps a mile along the river to investigate further after getting off the bus.
The 62-year-old from Flint, Wales, had planned a winter day trip to Llangollen, but instead found himself captivated by the peculiar sight on the river – a circular ice sheet he believed was about 50ft in diameter.
The perfectly round disc was rotating anti-clockwise on the water’s surface. Gary had stumbled upon an unusual spectacle typically seen in rivers in much chillier parts of the globe, reports WalesOnline.
Because they appear too perfect to be natural, they’ve been nicknamed a type of UFO – an Unidentified Floating Object.
“I first spotted it through trees from the bus,” said Gary. “I thought, bloody hell, what on earth was that! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So, from Llangollen, I walked back east along the old railway track to find it. I stayed and watched it for about half-an-hour – it was absolutely amazing. I’d never seen anything like it before.”
“It was fascinating to watch the disc as it slowly spun around several times – I estimated it was rotating at 1mph. A sign on a tree nearby said there was a whirlpool in the river, so I assumed that’s what was causing it.”
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Ice discs, a natural phenomenon sparking curiosity and wonder, have been observed around the globe from Russia to China and across Scandinavia. In the USA, their first sighting dates back to 1895 on Connecticut’s Mianus River.
Some of the most impressive specimens have emerged in North America, including a colossal 298ft-wide ice disc on Maine’s Presumpscot River in January 2019, which garnered huge interest.
This was later overshadowed by an even more gigantic 650ft spinning disc noticed via satellite imagery on Canada’s Taltson River in the Northwest Territories.
These formations go by various monikers such as ice circles or ice pans, and some refer to them as ice carousels. Gary affectionately termed his discovery an “ice turntable”.
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