Have you ever come across an icicle formed on the edge of a building that looks so beautiful and crisp, you were tempted to eat it like a popsicle?
Well, you may want to resist this urge. According to meteorologist Kate Nickolaou, making a snack of an icicle formed from your roof is not a great idea. After seeing videos on TikTok of people grabbing and eating icicles that had formed on their roofs, Nickolaou realized she had to let them know the truth.
In her own now-viral TikTok video, she explains why you shouldn’t eat icicles:
@weather_katie Don’t eat icicles! Please respect the fact that I edited out the original woman in the video (I have her permission) #IciclePoop
“When icicles form, it’s from water that runs off your roof and runs down the side of a building,” she explains. “Well, here’s the thing. You know what else is on your roof? Bird poop. A lot of it.”
Yikes! I wasn’t expecting that.
“And that water picks it up, and freezes it in the ice,” she continues. “You’re eating poop,” she says in no uncertain terms.
Who knew?! Her video now has more 3 million likes, and more than 53,000 comments.
Nickolaou is a meteorologist with KMEG in Sioux City, Iowa. She’s always been interested in the weather, and she’s surprised that her little-known factoid would make her so popular.
“Honestly it was mostly to amuse myself, I never thought it would go viral,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I just think it’s because so many people have eaten icicles. It’s just one of those shocking things.”
While there is some health risk to humans associated with inhaling or ingesting bird poop, if you think about the volume of icicles humans have eaten from their homes without falling ill — chances are this is an activity you may want to avoid more for the “ick” factor rather than one that will put you in grave danger.
It’s also important to note is that falling icicles can pose a danger to those standing underneath them. So if you truly want to put safety first, you may want to avoid those icicles dangling from your home altogether — tempting as they may be.
For more of this cheeky’s meteorologist’s interesting weather tidbits, follow her on TikTok.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
