[Sleepless in Denver]

I see this is a very old post, but thought I would post anyhow. I had the same thing happen to me several times now. We moved near Denver, Colo, and at first we thought it was the 6500 ft elevation we were not use to. Most of the time water boils normally, but there have been about 10 instances in the 6 years we have been here that water exploded on the stove top when we tried to bring it to boil. We even switched to medium heat instead of high heat and it still exploded. It didn't quite form a funnel, but just a very sudden explosive overflowing all over stove top, countertop and floor, and the height was enough to go over to countertops. The episodes instantly nearly empties the pan of the 3-6 cups or so of water (filled about 3/4 the way of pan).  We use stainless steel pans, but I don't think they have a copper bottom, with straight sides and no lid on. After this happened a couple times, we did notice that the barometric pressure was higher than normal. Since this also occured in places like San Diego, which is near where we moved from, it doesn't seem to be an elevation issue. Anyone know if barometric pressure can cause this?  I did get my arm burned the first time, but now I stay my distance until I see the water boiling normally. Any info would be helpful, as well as interesting.

[Eternal Student]

Hi.

     Just to be safer, don't boil a pan of just water.  Leave a wooden spoon in the pan (straight away, i.e. from cold as you start to heat it).  Otherwise just add some peas.  Shooting blobs of water due to a rapid growth of gas bubbles is often called "bumping".  Peas make good anti-bumping granules but rough edges on a wooden spoon will also often be enough to reduce the risk of bumping.

Best Wishes.

[Spam 200522]

GOOD