What is refreeze?

Refreeze is when something that was once frozen becomes frozen again after it had melted.

Imagine you have an ice cream cone on a hot day. The ice cream starts to melt and turns into a gooey mess. But then, the temperature drops, maybe it gets cold outside or you put your cone in the freezer. The melted ice cream turns solid once more, that’s refreeze!

Like a Playground Slide

Think of refreeze like sliding down a slide and then climbing back up again. First, you go from high to low (melting), and then you climb back up (freezing). It's not magic, it just happens because the temperature changed.

If you’ve ever seen a puddle freeze over after it had thawed in the spring, that’s also refreeze! The water turned from liquid to solid again. So, refreeze is like giving something a second chance to be frozen, just like your ice cream getting its ice cream-ness back!

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Examples

  1. A lake freezes in winter, and when spring comes, the ice starts to melt. Later, as temperatures drop again, the melted water turns back into ice.

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