It's not unusual for us to have the last snowfall of the season at the end of March but it is a little unusual to have an ice storm in April. That's what happened yesterday. It wasn't a big deal, not anything like our famous ice storm of 1998 that made the world news and was documented in a book, but an ice storm just the same.
On Hive, I really enjoy learning about everyday life in other countries so I thought I would share this with you.
I was working about a 30 minute drive across the city and there was little morning traffic in anticipation of the storm. And you know what some of these modern buildings are like with no windows, well, I didn't look outside, and it had already changed from freezing rain to just rain as the temperature rose during the day.
As I left the building I heard the familiar winter sound of someone scraping their car. This was going to take some time.
I opened my passenger side door to drop off my briefcase and walked around to the driver side. Sure enough, as the side facing the prevailing wind, the ice was thicker there and the door wouldn't budge. So I walked back around, climbed into the passenger side, crawled across to the driver's seat and settled in, then threw my shoulder into the door a couple of times. You might recognize the move as a shoulder check if you're a hockey (ice hockey) fan. Luckily, it opened.
The first thing you do is start the car, then flick on the rear window defroster, turn on the heat, turn up the fan, and aim all that warm air at the front window. I took that powerful scraper, sitting on my car in the second photo, and was removing the ice before I remembered to take photos. By now it was pouring rain and I was soaked before I was finished. You do want to remove the ice/snow so you can see, so your lights can be seen, and so it doesn't fly off your car in traffic. On the other hand, I was shivering so I did it, um, quickly. See the ice on the ground?
I am a careful driver. The traffic had slowed down and come to a brief halt before I quickly pulled out my camera. Driving by an on ramp, you can see the slush to my right.
In freezing rain, it starts as rain and then falls through a colder layer of air, ending up falling as ice or as rain that freezes on contact. When there is an accumulation over 1/4" of it, you have an ice storm. Roads become treacherous, power lines can fall, and tree branches can be 30x their usual weight with the thick coating. During the big ice storm, the weight on old spruce trees made them fold like umbrellas.
To the right, the trees are bowing a little under the weight of the ice.
Let's add a little road construction to the mix! I had my car radio on and there were announcements of power outages across the city but not everywhere.
Don't park or walk under a tree during an ice storm. Pretty but deadly.
It wasn't going to get any worse and we were expecting higher temperatures so it wouldn't stick around.
Our ever present road crews take care of the ice, now slush, on the roads but you can see it in my driveway. It was gone by morning.
It certainly is nice for photos.
A closeup of the vines on the fence.
And it's sparkly when the sun shines but then it disappears quickly.
Thank you for dropping by.
Images
Photos from my Canon SX620 HS in Ottawa, Canada.
Enjoy!
