We experimentally investigated the development and vertical movement of isothermal lines in cooling columns of confined water. The isothermal line develops spontaneously whenever the bottom of the column cools to $∼4°C$ before the top. The width of these lines was typically less than 1 cm, with up to a $3°C$ thermal gradient across these lines. The velocity was inversely proportional to the diameter of the column. The velocity was $1.4±0.1 cm/min$ when the column diameter was 2.2 cm, and decreases to $0.4±0.1 cm/min$ when the diameter was increased to 12.5 cm. Data presented here also raise serious questions about the claim of new phase transitions in water made by Esposito et al. (2008, “Mpemba Effect and Phase Transitions in the Adiabatic Cooling of Water Before Freezing,” Physica A, 387, pp. 757–763).

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