DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This week, Boston hit a milestone - more than a hundred inches of snow have fallen there this winter. The Massachusetts weather has created something that sort of looks like a painting off the island of Nantucket. Best description we can come up with - Slurpee waves. They're partially frozen, making the ocean look like a giant slushy rolling ashore.
SARAH OKTAY: Yeah, this is really something special to see.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Sarah Oktay is an oceanographer. She directs the University of Massachusetts-Boston Nantucket Field Station. She says a Slurpee isn't the only thing the ice can look like when temperatures really drop.
OKTAY: You might have, like, pancake ice, which looks like little pancakes floating in the water. You'll get sheet ice, frizzle ice, which is like a little bit more jagged.
GREENE: Now, Oktay says if you actually scooped up a glass of that slushy ocean water and tried to drink it, the ice part would actually taste all right.
OKTAY: If you separated it out, everything that floated up on the top of your Slurpee would be close to drinkable or potable. Everything at the bottom would taste like the world's worst margarita - all salt and no tequila.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE CHAMPS SONG, "TEQUILA")
GREENE: Well, doesn't that music get us in the mood for that, but does not sound like a margarita I want to order after the show if we're drinking, Linda.
WERTHEIMER: OK.
GREENE: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
WERTHEIMER: And I'm Linda Wertheimer.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE CHAMPS SONG, "TEQUILA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.