TikToker explains point-blank why you shouldn’t eat icicles

A meteorologist on TikTok generated over 13 million views for her explanation as to why you shouldn’t eat icicles — a trend she noticed cropping up on the social media platform.

Katie Nickolaou is the Morning Meteorologist for Siouxland News, a station that covers news in what’s known as the Big Sioux River drainage basin in South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa.

Nickolaou told BuzzFeed News in an interview that she kept seeing videos on TikTok in which people ate icicles that had formed off of their roofs, and she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Please don’t do that,” Nickolaou says in her TikTok, referring to a clip of an anonymous user snacking on an icicle. “When icicles form it’s from water that melts off of your roof and runs down the side of the building.”

@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

♬ original sound – nickolaou.weather

“You know what else is on your roof? Bird poop. A lot of it — and that water picks it up and freezes it in the ice,” she concludes in the video.

The overall sentiment in the comments section was: “Is that supposed to stop us?”

As someone who grew up in the northeast, eating icicles has been a way of life since even before TikTok and we all survived. It’s a little gross in retrospect but I, along with most of the video’s 52,000 commenters, stand bravely in support of the occasional icicle snack.

“I like how this changed NO ONE’S opinion,” one person joked.

“And it’s seasoned? Say less,” another added.

Icicles can be dangerous, as Nickolaou’s follow-up TikTok proves. In it, she and a coworker debunk the theory that an icicle could be used as a weapon but added in the comments that you should watch out when walking underneath them.

“The sharp tip of the icicle isn’t what you need to worry about,” Nickolaou says. “If an icicle falls from a large height it can break bones, so don’t walk under them!”

If you liked this story, check out this article about the dos and don’ts of jumping back into your wellness routine after the holidays.

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