Ice Storm Cometh

[Tri Girl]

Glad you missed it, Karen, and I'm glad you're in school bike4ever. All the school districts within 50 miles are closed. I guess that's good since I had to burn a day of sick leave to attend my doctor's appointment- now I'll get to save that day for later. The bad part? Supposed to ice more and we'll probably be out tomorrow, too. I hate being out so close to Christmas break. We'll be paying for it in May.

BUT, the ice sure is pretty to look at. I took a couple pictures of how pretty it all is. I'm so sad for my already struggling pine trees. The needles are 10 times their size with ice, and they're all leaning to the ground. I hope they don't break...

[Tuckervill]

It is a very surreal feeling to be amongst those trees when they're covered with ice.

It's also quite surreal when you are on the edge of the devastation. Last January when the tree fell, within 4 miles of here in Oklahoma it was much much worse. Days after we were all clear, I took a drive west and it was like a time warp.

Karen

[lph]

Sorry for being dense, but what IS an ice storm actually?

I can guess that it involves a lot of ice all over the place. but how does it get there? And why doesn't that happen here? I mean - it both rains and snows here in winter, but all that tends to go down and stay on the ground, and not go freezing in wads on the trees. Something about the climate has to be different.

- signed, mystified in Norway

[Velobambina]

You don't get ice storms because you're lucky! LOL. They are terrible.

I think freezing rain is the culprit. I don't remember the science of it--starts falling as rain but as it gets near the surface, freezes. ??

[Tri Girl]

The ice is from freezing rain and sleet. It's rained and sleeted for the last day, but the temps are below freezing so it accumulates on things and makes a pretty layer.
The news man said that 5,000 feet up, the air temp is about 60 degrees F. When the rain falls and passes through the air that's closer to the ground in the 20's, it freezes and then forms sleet or freezing rain. As it falls it freezes. I don't know why it does it in some places and not in others. In states north of us, they get pummeled with snow, but not the ice. I guess where it's warmer up higher in the atmosphere, there is more a chance for freezing rain? I suppose your air is cold all the way up, so it just snows? I wish I was a meteorologist so I could say this with any certainty.

As I'm writing this I'm looking outside at our power line precariously sitting right below a rather large branch with almost an inch coating of ice. I fear it will break from the tree and take the power line with it. Say a little prayer that it doesn't, please.

[singletrackmind]

Surreal is standing (in an open area) outside at 4 am completely blanketed in quiet but for the constant cracks and crashes of tree limbs all around.

Here's to not having another of last year's episode. We were one of the lucky few that kept power though 90% of our neighbors did not. The two limbs that landed on our lines didn't break them, none of our trees gave up anything major. Our neighbor's elm was leaning heavily over our lines and our roof....it was kind of scary being up there sawing the branches off bit by bit until we got enough weight off the tree it was no longer a danger. Beforehand, the other side of it broke off and landed on our neighbor's house, cutting his power prompting our rooftop ice skating session.

[Tuckervill]

On Feb 9, 1994, a serious ice storm hit a large portion of the southeast when we lived in Memphis (I remember the date distinctly, because it was the day my hub got his vasectomy ).

I remember the limbs cracking, as you described, but I also remember the sound of several transformers in our neighborhood exploding, one after another. That's a sound you don't often forget. With every explosion, we expected the power to go out in our house, but it didn't go until about the 6th or 7th. Fortunately, we lived in a part of Memphis that had all the power lines underground, but the rest of Memphis was not so lucky.

I have a feeling Missouri and Oklahoma, at least, are going to have that kind of devastation this time.

Karen