Freezing Rain

We had our first experience of freezing rain on the afternoon of Tuesday 12 February 2008. Basically it starts as snow up high, melts completely as it goes through a layer of warmer air on its way down, then hits a layer a air below freezing which supercools it. This water then freezes on whatever it lands on.

The freezing rain started mid afternoon. It wasn’t too bad early in Maryland. Seemed to hit the Virginia roads worse. One of the guys I work with left work at 3.30pm and got home at 7pm. Roads were just so slow.

I left work early to get home by 5pm to catch the PM's apology live. Connecticut Avenue virtually stopped moving so I got off my bus 3 or 4 stops early and slid down the sidewalks, with the bus back out of sight when I reached my street! Most of the ice settled after I got home. We already had ice on our deck, 3 – 4 inch icicles on the car and off the trees, deck railings etc. Donna was out with the kids at swimming but got home ok.

Looked fantastic on Wednesday morning with the sun coming through the icicle filled trees. Big storms overnight which were a bit warmer and just normal rain so the roads and sidewalks weren’t too bad. Did slide and fall down some outside steps at home where black ice was hiding. Schools and govt were on a 2 hour late start. I had to take the Subaru over to Rockville for a service which was a drive I could have done without. The ice had taken out the traffic lights through much of this area but didn't seem to be much ice on the road so traffic was moving ok. Much easier to hop on the bus to get to the station. Then one of the news crews filmed me trying to walk up the sidewalk to the station which I wasn’t real impressed with …

Donna took some photos on Wednesday morning which are here.

Malcolm