One of the rarer meteorological phenomenon is the ice storm. Severe ice storms occur about once every ten years.
An ice storm occurs when the temperature at ground level is well below zero, the temperature in the intermediate layer between ground level and the precipitating cloud is much warmer, above zero, and the clouds are at or below freezing. The precipitation starts out as snow but melts in the intervening layer as it falls. Once it hits the surface it immediately freezes. This is called freezing rain and it coats everything in ice. Unlike snow which is friable and will drift and fall off surfaces the ice clings and weighs down that surface resulting in falling trees, roofs and power lines. A severe ice storm can be devastating and fatal.
At the moment there is a severe ice storm in the US Midwest and a contact posted this.
“ Oklahoma got hit the hardest. We got hit not once, but twice by ice storms. I lost power during the second one. My power was out for 133 hours, over 5 days. It finally came back on this evening. Last I heard 57,000 in Tulsa were still without power. Some may be without power for two weeks. At one point nearly 600,000 were without power in Oklahoma and around one million in the midwest.
“Hundreds of crewmen from 14 different states came to our rescue to help restore power. Heard on TV some may be here through Christmas. Also heard tonight one of the out of state crew men fell off a pole and landed on a fence and broke his leg 🙁 My thoughts and prayers are with him and all of the others who are working out in this weather to restore our power so that we can be warm once again.”
Pictures
(Used with permission)
I first heard about ice storms when I watched the imaginatively titled film “The Ice Storm“. The cinematography is brilliant, well worth a watch.