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Ice Storm
An ice storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain, also known as a glaze event or, in some parts of the United States, as a silver thaw.[1] The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least 0.25-inch (6.4 mm) of ice on exposed surfaces.[2] From 1982 to 1994, ice storms were more common than blizzards and averaged 16 per year.[3] They are not violent storms, but instead commonly perceived as gentle rains occurring at temperatures just below freezing. For this reason people may be unaware of the danger if it happens overnight.
Notable ice storms
An ice storm which struck northern Idaho in January 1961 set a record for thickest recorded ice accumulation from a single storm in the United States, at 8 inches.
In March 1991, a major ice storm in the area of Rochester, NY caused $375 million in damages, placing it among the worst natural disasters in New York State history.
In February 1994, a severe ice storm caused over $1 billion in damage in the Southern United States, primarily in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama.
The North American ice storm of 1998 occurred during January 5–9, 1998. It was one of the most devastating and costly ice storms in North American history and potentially one of the most devastating ice storms in modern history. The storm caused massive power failures in several large cities on the East Coast of the United States. The most affected area was extreme eastern Ontario and southwestern Quebec in Canada, where over 3 million people were without power for up to a month and a half. Whole trees snapped and electrical pylons were completely flattened under the weight of the accumulated ice.
The Northeastern United States was impacted by a major ice storm on December 11–12, 2008, which left about 1.25 million homes and businesses without power. Areas impacted with 3⁄4 to 1 in (19 to 25 mm) of ice accumulation included eastern New York in the Albany area, central and western Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, coastal and south-central Maine, Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains region, northwestern Connecticut, and southern Vermont. Southern New Hampshire and northernmost Massachusetts got hit the worst with the storm with ice accumulations ranging from 1.5 to 3 in (38 to 76 mm) of ice. This left residents unable to get supplies, go to work etc. due to blocked roads from trees that fell on the roads. Any trees that fell quickly took down power poles. It took utility crews from 4 to as many as 16 days to get a look at the damage and start to restore power to nearly 1.3 million people. In all there were 675,000 residents in New Hampshire without power and around 500,000 in northern Massachusetts.
In late January 2009 ice storms covered several U.S. states, including Arkansas and Kentucky. Most areas affected saw over 2 in (51 mm) of ice accumulation, and between 1–5 in (25–127 mm) of snow on top of the ice. This ice storm left well over 2 million people without power at its peak and killed 55 people, 24 in Kentucky.[15] Rural Water Associations in Arkansas and Kentucky activated emergency response plans to deal with power loss to small water utilities across their states. Neighboring state Rural Water Associations, including experienced emergency responders from Louisiana and Florida, loaned equipment and manpower to assist the hardest-hit areas.
During the unusually severe Winter of 2009–10 in Great Britain and Ireland, heavy snow had fallen over much of the country in late December and early January. By the second week of January, many of the roads and pavements had been cleared by local councils due to the use of rock salt gritting. However, during the early hours of January 12, a wet front[clarification needed] moved across the country, causing freezing rain and heavy ice glaze, particularly in the South and West Yorkshire areas of Northern England (crucially, this rainfall had stopped before first light). When the local population prepared to set out for work and school, they saw from their windows what appeared to be clear roads and pavements but were in fact treacherous sheets of black ice. Cars and buses almost immediately encounted extreme difficulty, and emergency services were called to dozens of accidents. Pedestrians in the village of Holmfirth found the only safe way to proceed was to crawl on all fours.[18] Accident and emergency units at hospitals in the Sheffield, Rotherham, and Barnsley areas found themselves inundated by people with broken bones, fractures, and sprains, and many schools were closed as it was judged unsafe for pupils to attempt to make their way there.
On December 25, 2010, freezing rain fell on Moscow and its vicinity. The glaze ice accumulation caused a number of accidents and power outages, of which the most serious was damage caused to two power lines feeding Domodedovo Airport, causing a complete blackout of the airport and express railway that connected it to the city. As a result, the airport was shut down and hundreds of passengers were stranded inside, with taxi drivers charging up to 10,000 rubles (USD 330) for a one-hour drive to the city.[19] Other city airports, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo, where air traffic was re-routed and amid heavy snowfall that followed ice rain, collapsed a day later, causing a full air transport collapse.
List of ice storms
1920s
- Central and Eastern Massachusetts Ice Storm of November 26–29, 1921.
- Southeast Minnesota, Northeast Iowa, Wisconsin Ice storm of February 21–23, 1922. 1940s
- Northwestern Texas Ice Storm of January 22–24, 1940.
- Great Ice Storm of November 23–25, 1940.[1]
- Upstate New York Ice Storm of December 29–30, 1942. 1950s
- The Nashville, Tennessee Ice Storm of January 29–February 1, 1951. 1960s
- Northern Idaho ice storm of January 1–3, 1961 1970s
- Atlanta and North Georgia, USA; January 7–8, 1973. Whole city down hard for a week+. Ice bomb.
- Southern New England Ice Storm of 1973, December 16–17, 1973
- Southern Wisconsin Ice Storm of March 4–5, 1976.
- Twin North Carolina Ice Storms of January 12-13 and 19-20,1978[2]
- Long Island Ice Storm of January 13–14, 1978
- Illinois Ice Storm of March 26, 1978 (Easter Sunday) started the day before
- The Great New Year's Eve 1978 Ice Storm in Dallas, Texas 1980s
- Alabama 1982
- Ozarks Christmas ice storm of 1987
- Dallas, Texas and surrounding area ice storm March 4, 1989. Temperatures were at first above 70 °F (21 °C) but suddenly on Friday March 3 and it suddenly got cold, below freezing, and ice started forming in the late evening. By Saturday morning, March 4, the ice was 2–3 inches (5–8 cm) thick on the roadways. Temperatures stayed cold for several days and the city was at a standstill. A week later on March 11, 1989, the temperature was 95 °F (35 °C) degrees again. 1990s
- East Central Illinois Ice Storm of February 14, 1990
- Western and Northern NY Ice Storm of March 3–4, 1991
- 1991 - Russiaville, Indiana and surrounding areas - It was in the spring of 1991 and everyone was without power for almost 2 weeks.
- Mid-Atlantic Ice Storm of January 7–8, 1994
- Southern Ice Storm of February 1994
- Eastern Washington State/North Idaho area ice storm of 1996
- North American Ice Storm of 1998
- January 1999 North American ice storm 2000s
- November 2000 Moldova and SW Ukraine
- 2002 Central Plains ice storm
- North Carolina ice storm of 2002
- Rochester, NY area Ice Storm of April 4, 2003
- December 2005 North American ice storm [3]
- January 2007 North American ice storm
- Mid-December 2007 North American winter storms
- January 2008 New York ice storm
- December 2008 New England ice storm [4]
- January 2009 North American ice storm 2010s
- January 2010 Southern ice storm
- January 31 – February 2, 2011 North American blizzard
- January 24, 2013 Salt Lake City, Utah Ice Storm
- April 9–11, 2013 Southeast South Dakota Ice storm
- December 20–24, 2013 North American ice storm
- February 1–3, 2014 Slovenia Ice Storm
- February 4–5, 2014 Pennsylvania Ice Storm
- Mid-February 2014 North American ice storm
Additional Reading:
- Wikipedia - Ice Storms
- Wikipedia - List of Ice Storms
- The Weather Channel Winter Storm Caly Dumps Snow from Coast to Coast, Kills at least 9
- Wikipedia - January 1998 North American ice storm
- Ice storm blamed for 11 deaths, 550,000 lose power
- Ottawa Citizen - Remember the Ice Storm of ’98? It was the most devastating and least ferocious of Canadian disasters
- The Weather Channel - Winter News - Decima’s Death Toll Rises after 55-car Pileup Near Baltimore
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