Tis’ the season for nasty weather and all the hazards that come along with it. For the past two weeks, the area I’m currently living was forecasted to get multiple snowstorms. Instead, we barely received any snow and got freezing rain! At first I was pretty let down about not getting to see a hefty amount of snow. That was until I saw how beautiful ice storms are. With that being said, I decided to take some pictures of the event to share with the Steemit community today. On top of that, I’ll also discuss what causes freezing rain to happen.

Pine tree sapling covered in ice. Image Source: Author of article.

Typically, freezing rain isn’t something to be excited about. It usually brings nuisances such as downed power lines, fallen trees, car accidents, amongst other hazards. While they do provide a beautiful landscape, they can be pretty dangerous to those living in areas prone to them. This particular ice storm was fairly mellow and luckily did not cause any of the aforementioned hazards. Truthfully, I shouldn’t have taken a hike into the woods while it was occurring because I could hear branches falling and cracking all over the place, but I was pretty excited about it all.

Image Source: Author of article.

What causes freezing rain to occur?

For starters, it’s not snow, nor sleet and not exactly rain either. Freezing rain occurs under very specific conditions. In order for it to take place, there needs to be cool enough conditions for the clouds in the upper atmosphere to precipitate snow. While a cold air mass is in place, a warmer air mass begins to encroach into the cooler air mass, but not all at once. It generally creates a leading edge nose that wedges it’s way into the cooler air mass. This creates three layers of differentiating temperatures the precipitation will fall through— freezing (snow clouds), above freezing (rain) and back to sub-freezing (hundreds of meters above surface). As the snow falls, it goes through the warmer air mass, causing it to melt. However, near the surface the temperatures remain below freezing causing the rain to be supercooled. When the rain hits the surface, it freezes creating a glaze over all surfaces e.g. roads, sidewalks, trees, plants, cars, etc.

This diagram will help visualize the process that allows freezing rain to occur. [Image Source]

While this process of would appear rather simple, the rare occurrence of freezing rain begs to differ. Hence why it proves to be such a hazard to the region in which it occurs. All being said, I’m glad I got to see just a smidgen of its influence on my surroundings the other day because it provided some truly astonishing views. I hope you enjoy the pictures I took of the ice storm! It was a real joy to photograph the event.

Tree bending under the weight of the accumulated ice. Image Source: Author of article.

Welcome to Ice Land, not to be mistaken with Iceland. Image Source: Author of article.

A single string of spider web covered in ice. I was actually very surprised to see this. Image Source: Author of article.

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Bibliography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezing_rain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooling
http://www.weather.gov/rnk/measure_icing