I hate ice

[benhutcherson]

Unlike you folks up north, who see lots of snow, or you folks down south who don't see any, we in Kentucky seem to always have weather of our own.

What usually ends up happening here is that when a bad storm comes in in the winter, we get a lot of liquid rain on top of a cold ground-in other words, everything turns to ice.

We're currently in the middle of one such storm, in which the sidewalks, trees, and roads have about an inch of ice on them, with a couple of inches of snow on top of them, and even more ice on top of the snow. All of this makes for quite a sight, as the surface of the snow is glassy smooth, but it's a real bear to drive or even walk in. Everything around here's ground to a halt, and looks like it will for another day or two.

Here's a photo out the window, showing this eerily shiny snow. By the way, it took the truck on the left side of the frame(with the headlights on) about 15 minutes of revving their engine and spinning their tires before they finally got out or gave up(I'm not sure which)

[McHeath]

We had that storm last week here in Kawleefournya.  It lowered the snow level in the Sierra Nevada range from 10,000 feet to 3,000 feet.  We got about an 1 and a half of rain here, which is a lot considering we only get 12 inches all year.

I agree however that I too hate ice.  That picture looks kinda otherworldy, and downright spooky. 

[Dennis Markham]

Great photo.  Looks like the kids were out punching holes in the snow/ice.  I would rather have a foot of snow than get that freezing rain.  We have been lucky this year (knock on wood) here in Michigan.  We've had a lot of snow but none of that ice.  I just talked by phone to my sister in Dallas.  They're getting freezing rain there.  But their temps are supposed to be 48 by mid day tomorrow.  We're going to get some snow out of this system.

[bingster]

I was really excited when I woke up Tuesday morning because we finally got a little snow here.  We've been robbed all year, with the snow not making it down this far.  Huge snow storms have raged across the country all winter, but they always skipped us.

About mid-day, though, the snow changed to a sleet/freezing rain mix, and it's been falling that way since.  What a mess.  And what a downer after the "first snow" excitement.  I hate ice, too.

[benhutcherson]

Well, the ice has stopped falling here, so we're now left with the full war zone effect as tree limbs continue to fall.

Here are a few snapped in trekking across campus today

[Dennis Markham]

Thanks for those photos Ben.  That's what is so terrible with ice.  It brings down limbs and lines.  Are there people without power in your area?  Obviously you have it somewhere or you wouldn't be uploading photos.


Our snow has stopped too.  I think we have about 3 inches.  Bingster, if you'd like, my driveway needs to be shoveled.  About the 20th time you did that you wouldn't want any more!   I'll put some in a Priority Box for you and ship it your way.

[benhutcherson]

Dennis,
They're already saying that the power outages are higher than our last major ice storm, which was in 2003. or that matter, they're saying that outages are the highest of any weather event in recent history. What's bad about this compared to 2003 is that in 2003, most of the damage was concentrated to Lexington. This storm isn't as bad locally, but the whole state got hit.

In 2003, pretty much everything ground to a halt for two weeks. Temperatures are supposed to be below freezing for at least the next couple of days, so there's a good chance this one may be similar. Unless they make a serious effort around here getting things cleaned up, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have class again tomorrow. Today is the second day in a row for us, which is unheard of.

In any case, I've heard that main street, one block over, doesn't have power. We may be safe, since most all of our power lines are underground, however of course we could still get hit further up the grid.

[Bill]

As they say here in Maine, an ice storm is just nature's way of pruning the trees and bushes. We get at least one every year.

Bill

[Dennis Markham]

Well Ben, we'll keep our fingers crossed for you.  Generators are pretty popular around here although we don't get a lot of ice storms.  But it seems that when we do it knocks power out for a long time.  The electric company spends a great deal of time and money around here with tree pruning crews all summer long.  I don't know if it does any good or not.

[McHeath]

If we had an ice storm here we would just all roll over and die.  We are wimps when it comes to winter.

[HobieSport]

If we had an ice storm here we would just all roll over and die.  We are wimps when it comes to winter.

Winter?  What is Winter?  Being raised on the central and northern Calif Coast I am SUCH a wimp! And I thought it was "cold" with a mild frost this morning.  It's 70 degrees this afternoon.  Please don't hate me...

[Dennis Markham]

Photo taken today after 3-4 inches of new snow.  Just after Christmas we had a heat wave.  It went to a record 62 degrees.  All of our snow melted.  So this came since then.  Is it spring yet?

[HobieSport]

Nice photo Dennis (and Ben) One thing I DO miss is the beauty of real winter, or seasons in general for that matter.  Just that I'm a total wimp below 30 degrees or above 75.

[Dennis Markham]

Thanks Matt.  It is pretty but it gets old.  I know that in areas of the Country where they don't get snow people would love to have some.  I sent a few photos to my sister who lives in Alabama.  She would love to bring her young grand children here to play in the snow.  For those that like winter sports it's great.  Myself, I'd rather be out on the lake in the middle of July.

[benhutcherson]

Dennis,
Thanks, and thanks to everyone else for the compliments on the photos.

Really, ice can be even more beautiful than snow-it's just so destructive.

Fortunately, we still have power here, although they lost it in a few spots on the north end of campus earlier today.

Thankfully, the heating plant(which, incidentally, I was fortunate enough to get a detailed tour of last Friday) has a pair of enormous natural gas fueled boilers that keep the heat going. So, even if the power goes out, we still will have heat, more or less.

At least, too, we did get a nice powdery coating of about 4" of snow earlier this morning. The top surface of the snow no longer has the eerie glassy sheen on top of it like it did yesterday.

I checked on my car today, to make sure it was out of the way of any potentially falling limbs. There's an ice shell about an inch thick over top everything, including the wheels. I'll probably try and get it cleaned off and started tomorrow, although I'm not in a hurry to go anywhere(RWD and ice isn't fun).

This has certainly been an interesting storm-I don't envy you folks(if there are any of you on here) who still have it coming.