Ice storm
Ice storms are weather phenomena caused by freezing rain. The falling rain comes into contact with surfaces and turns into a thin sheet of ice. Ice storms cause accidents, take power lines down and cause serious damage.
Formation
It starts with a layer of warmer (not freezing) air above a layer of huge-freezing temperatures lower down. Frozen precipitation melts to rain while falling into the warm air layer, and then begins to refreeze in the cold layer below.
- If the precipitate refreezes while still in the air, it will land on the ground as sleet.
- Or, the liquid droplets continue to fall without freezing. They pass through the cold air just above the surface. This thin layer of air cools the rain to a temperature below freezing (0 °C or 32 °F), but the drops themselves do not freeze. This is a phenomenon called supercooling.
When the supercooled drops strike ground or anything else below 0 °C (32 °F) (e.g. power lines, tree branches, aircraft), a layer of ice builds up, hence "freezing rain".[1][2][3]
Reeferences
Ice Storm Media
Devastation caused by an ice storm
Power lines and groups pulled down after an ice storm. Besides disrupting transportation, ice storms can disrupt utilities by snapping lines and poles.
Detail of a pinecone covered in ice
A buildup of ice on a branch after an ice storm
Car after an ice storm hit central Iowa in 2007.
A weeping willow tree damaged by an ice storm
- ↑ Gay, David A.. Freezing rain and sleet climatology of the southeastern USA. Climate Research 3 (1) (December 30, 1993). p. 209–220. doi:10.3354/cr003209.
- ↑ Ice StormsCity of Savannah, Georgia. Retrieved January 8, 2009.
- ↑ University of Illinois. Cyclones and Fronts: the definition of freezing rain. Retrieved January 9, 2009.