Out of Pod Experience

I'd upload video of myself rally driving on slippery roads here in NS, but the police would probably frown on that.

it's actually a very cool process and requires absolutely perfect conditions to do this. I used to love forecasting these types of events back when I worked in weather. It happens because super-cooled water droplets don't collide with an ice crystal because the atmosphere is not quite cold enough to produce ice crystals but IS cold enough to super-cool water droplets. Then, the super-cooled water droplets fall, again not colliding with anything on the way down, and when they DO collide with an object, like the road, a vehicle, tree branch etc.., the droplet freezes instantly.

It's such a cool process, imho. It sucks to be out in it and driving, walking etc.. but fascinating none the less.

Been there, more than a few times. I don't call freezing rain an Ice Storm, though... I call it freezing rain. Now... When the ice precipitates directly out of the still, humid, freezing air? THAT is what I call an Ice Storm. Creepy weather... Menacing in a quiet but quite unmistakable way.

Growing up in Colorado, I saw limbs litterally leaping off of cottonwood trees as the water content in the tree froze and the internal tension overcame the strength and elasticity of the wood - All that energy realeased a rifle-shot craaack! and suddenly a limb thicker than my body would be flying away from the bole of a tree. Sometimes instead, great wedges of wood would simply blast away from the tree, or the trunk would fly apart.

Powerlines and utility poles would become caked, topsides and undersides, in crystal-clear rime, then collapes or shear under the weight. Vehicles became encased on every exposed surface... outside, underside, engine & engine compartment, suspension. Livestock died in the fields where they stood and became glittering ice sculptures in their own right...



Even when it's describing the conditions that will soon kill you, should the weather remain constant...

It's been kinda chilly in Houston too.

I almost wore long sleeves last week.