SASKATOON -- On her usual run, Cyndi Jeffery noticed something different about the North Saskatchewan River.

She says as she was running near her home, just north of Langham, she noticed that the ice had formed in circles on the river.

“I couldn’t figure out how they would be formed,” she said.

Jeffery has been living in the area for over two years and says she has never seen the ice come down the river like this before.

“Usually the ice comes down in chunks. It’s just not something a person really encounters,” she said.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘Look it’s just like crop circles.’”

Associate Professor at the Global Institute for Water Security Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt says these ice formations are common in rivers, but not usually until the colder months like January and February.

Lindenschmidt says the “pancake Ice” needs specific conditions to form.

He says that the water temperature needs to be just above freezing and then there needs to be a cold night below -10 C.

He says these temperatures will cool the water ever so slightly below zero and the water flow will cause the water to “super cool” which will cause slush-like ice.

The ice then forms into a circle shapes and moves down the river.

“Basically the same principle of how to make a Slurpee at 7-11,” said Lindenschmidt

Lindenschmidt also warns that it is hard to tell if the river is completely frozen due to the thermal plant near by.