Stormy Weather II

[Serial_Apologist]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this; cars completely encrusted in pure ice. The only way to open the door and get inside would have been to give the car a hot shower or a blast of hot air.

Back at the depth the infamous winter of '62-'63, we awoke one night to the sound of clanking in the attic. Up the Slingsby went brave/foolhardy Dad, to discover that thick ice covering the water in the cold water tank had frozen the ballcock into immobility, causing excess to escape through the overflow and cascade down over the glass canopy at the back of the house. Several kettlefuls of hot water sorted the problem, but the next morning revealed impressive ice stalactites curtaining down the back wall of the building, over the canopy, and onto an unfortunate Pittosporum, which had been converted into an ice sculpture. The rose bed below was an extensive ice rink. Somehow the roses survived, but not the Pittosporum!

Canada is possibly the country most affected by "ice storms", due to the enormous temperature differentiations commonly occurring to each side of frontal systems as they slide north up the eastern side of the country, contrasting near-summer surface temperatures borne on southerly winds of subtropical origin to the eastern seaboard, and arctic temperatures on northerly winds to the west. Most rain at our (and their) latitude starts out as snow or hail and melts on the way down to become rain - not the other way around! - but where freezing rain occurs, what starts as snow passes through an elevated zone above freezing point - the so-called "boundary zone" that demarcates the air flows on each side of the frontal surface, often coming from opposite directions - melts, falls through the freezing air below as "supercooled" water drops (if the air is not cold enough to freeze the drops into ice pellets, "soft hail"), which then freeze the instant they hit the surface, be that vehicles, soil, vegetation or power lines. If you search you'll find impressive pics from Canada and the States of bent over conifer trees encased in ice, and telegraph poles at angles with the cables in between bowed under the weight of accumulated ice, and often snapped. Normally the freezing rain zone along the front is quite narrow, and usually close to where the front meets the surface: the amount of accumulated freezing reflecting the length of time that particular portion of the frontal system is taking to pass. Here in this country we are usually lucky not to experience such frontal hold-ups since battles between airstreams usually resolve more quickly than over there, and the temperature differences between the competing air masses here are less pronounced, as a consequence of the moderating influence of the Atlantic. The Americans don't get that benefit because, like here, most of their weather systems come in from the west, containing nothing but continental air, regardless of surface wind directions. I hope that explains things clearly!

[doversoul1]

Back at the depth the infamous winter of '62-'63, we awoke one night to the sound of clanking in the attic. Up the Slingsby went brave/foolhardy Dad, to discover that thick ice covering the water in the cold water tank had frozen the ballcock into immobility, causing excess to escape through the overflow and cascade down over the glass canopy at the back of the house. Several kettlefuls of hot water sorted the problem, but the next morning revealed impressive ice stalactites curtaining down the back wall of the building, over the canopy, and onto an unfortunate Pittosporum, which had been converted into an ice sculpture. The rose bed below was an extensive ice rink. Somehow the roses survived, but not the Pittosporum!

Canada is possibly the country most affected by "ice storms", due to the enormous temperature differentiations commonly occurring to each side of frontal systems as they slide north up the eastern side of the country, contrasting near-summer surface temperatures borne on southerly winds of subtropical origin to the eastern seaboard, and arctic temperatures on northerly winds to the west. Most rain at our (and their) latitude starts out as snow or hail and melts on the way down to become rain - not the other way around! - but where freezing rain occurs, what starts as snow passes through an elevated zone above freezing point - the so-called "boundary zone" that demarcates the air flows on each side of the frontal surface, often coming from opposite directions - melts, falls through the freezing air below as "supercooled" water drops (if the air is not cold enough to freeze the drops into ice pellets, "soft hail"), which then freeze the instant they hit the surface, be that vehicles, soil, vegetation or power lines. If you search you'll find impressive pics from Canada and the States of bent over conifer trees encased in ice, and telegraph poles at angles with the cables in between bowed under the weight of accumulated ice, and often snapped. Normally the freezing rain zone along the front is quite narrow, and usually close to where the front meets the surface: the amount of accumulated freezing reflecting the length of time that particular portion of the frontal system is taking to pass. Here in this country we are usually lucky not to experience such frontal hold-ups since battles between airstreams usually resolve more quickly than over there, and the temperature differences between the competing air masses here are less pronounced, as a consequence of the moderating influence of the Atlantic. The Americans don't get that benefit because, like here, most of their weather systems come in from the west, containing nothing but continental air, regardless of surface wind directions. I hope that explains things clearly!

Most interesting. Many thanks.

. Most rain at our (and their) latitude starts out as snow or hail and melts on the way down to become rain - not the other way around! -

Well, this is so obvious, isn’t it? How come I have never doubted that rain turns into snow?!

[jean]

Back at the depth the infamous winter of '62-'63...

...I was newly away from home, living in a University Hall of Residence.

I was warm for the first time in my life!

[BBMmk2]

I think the Beast from the East has had it's Day hereabouts!

[DracoM]

Beast gone? Hmm. Not sure.
WIND and ice big factors here. Some good dry bits of road / pavement, then suddenly compacted drifts of snow now turned to real ice. Treacherous walking too.

[oddoneout]

Some more white stuff overnight. Not much but overlaying ice so tricky. Extracting the car will be delayed a bit longer, until the volume of snow covering it and drifted up under the front bumper has reduced.
The birds evidently think that change is afoot, as they are beginning to vocalise again. The lack of birdsound has been quite noticeable the past few days - no screeching seagulls, no scolding blackbirds or wrens, no fishwife cursing from the magpies. They were all there , just schtumm.

[Padraig]

It's bull!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-43272008

... but gender ambivalent.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's bull!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-43272008

... but gender ambivalent.

Gender .. ehem ... neutral, if it's a Bull? (On a holiday in Bulgaria, we were told by our guide that the yoghurt we were eating was made from "bull's milk", which gave us pause ... )

But a great image, Padraig; many thanks.

[DracoM]

A day of misty sun up here. Good thaw, but in places, just to catch you out in the shadows, The Iceman Cometh.

[cloughie]

A day of misty sun up here. Good thaw, but in places, just to catch you out in the shadows, The Iceman Cometh.

Thawing well here with currently sun out, a positively balmy 7 degrees.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thawing well here with currently sun out, a positively balmy 7 degrees.

Blimey! It just managed to creep to +0.5 here. (My first venture out in the car since Monday - no problem until returning and meeting a car coming towards me on the icy street on which I live - we both braked, but both continued to move towards each other! No damage or collision, thankfully.)

[greenilex]

Wet and dark here now, but well above freezing and likely to stay that way, I understand.

[BBMmk2]

Certainly warmed up yesterday evening when me and MrsBBM went out with a friend last night.. I see that rain now seems the norm, for the most part this week.

[Serial_Apologist]

9 degrees Celsius here right now, which is the early March normal for London and the SE - I had the pleasure of being able to visit the bins area without needing to don a coat!

From the looks of it, down here we are now in the clear for the forseeable; further north it looks as if the northern half of the country could be in for another blast from the east - temporary for south of the border, but lasting into the weekend for Scotland, at which point it appears that a very large area of low pressure will locate off the south-west and send a wide curve of wind and heavy rain right up the country.

[Petrushka]

Overnight snow here but it's foggy and the temperature has lifted sufficiently for the remaining snow to slowly start to thaw.

The ground has been saturated for weeks now and the forecast further heavy rain is not particularly welcome. Could really do with a dry fortnight or three weeks.