January 2, 2007: Nebraska ice storm
 

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm1.jpg

Currently being Farked (and thus, not loading at all) is this remarkable set of images of freezing rain in Nebraska.

For those of you who live in warmer climates, you might know that huge snow storms can create weather disasters... but you might not know that freezing rain can create a storm of ice that can be even more destructive. Think about it; if two inches of ice can form around a tiny tree branch...

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm3.jpg

What happens when it forms around every single wire and every single support on every pole, for miles and miles? It's a total disaster for the infrastructure.

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm5.jpg

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm4.jpg

It's also remarkably beautiful. Can you imagine being there and seeing every single exposed surface coated with ice?

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm6.jpg

The cattle can. The ice has taken down their wired fencing and the only thing keeping them from romping around the countryside is the slippery surfaces they now have to manage. They must have cold headaches as they find something to graze on.

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm2.jpg

There'll be no violators today.

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm7.jpg

A single blade of grass.

'tis the season to be freezin'. I guess the rumors about global warming were exagerated.

Well, freezing ice storms happen at temperatures below 0 at the grow and higher in the atmosphere. What happens is this:
Global temperatures rise, atmosphere temperature rises
More evaporation occur in the large bodies of water (hence places where they get more snow)

Since the atmosphere temperature rises, two things can then happen:
It'll rain, and the rain will freeze because of clouds (remember the evaporation)
-or-
if no clouds form, temperature at surface will be equal to the one in the atmosphere (hence warmer)

It depends where you are located.
Normally, where I live, winter with snow starts around November 15th and ends around February 15th. This year, there wasn't any snow until December 25th. And it melted. So winter hasn't officially started yet for me :(

And YET - in my old city, winter started 2 months early, and the temperatures are WELL below season normals.

So yeah, global warming doesn't necessarily mean warmer seasons :)

there's something disturbing about the picture of the guy's hand around that piece of ice

It was 87F here, Saturday. Eighty-seven. This is Florida and all, but almost hitting 90F in December feels really, really weird.

So I guess that ice shelf didn't actually separate from the north of Canada last week, and the polar bears are not losing their habitat. It's all an exaggeration ... NOT. :thepain:

frank I noticed that... figured I would leave it in anyway. The guy wanted to give a sense of scale to how much ice was there; wasn't the sense of scale he intended. And I guess a sense of scale is different to every yanker out there...

I can hear my kids now: sword fighting with grass-cicles!!!!

I've already lived through this in 1998. Most of northern New York State (yes, there is a state above Syracuse) and alot of southern Ontario and Quebec Canada got a huge ice storm. We were under a state of emergency - no power for at least two-three weeks unless you had a generator, no phones for over a month. Every pole was down between Clayton, NY and Watertown, NY (a 20mile stretch of road) plus many more all around the county. It was destructive, but oddly beautiful. I still have pictures somewhere.

Yep. We had a minor version of it here in 1994. It killed trees. The worst, though, was when it melted. Instead of soaking into the ground, all that water traveled over top the ice... flooding anything in its tracks... including most of my first floor.

That's just a trial separation. They really want to work things out. :D

And the Polar Bears were never really happy there. They really WANT to live in warmer climates and drown trying to get there. Ask anyone in the Bush admin. They'll confirm it.

Nature and the climate change constantly. The Polar Bears are going through a transitional stage, where there is a shortage of food because the ice for hunting on is diminishing. But, as the ice melts the area becomes warmer and more hospitable to humans.
Then when humans migrate to this newly hospitable area, the bears will have plenty of food.... especially if it's fat Americans. :yum:


Oh, it was pretty in Kansas too.

My posting here a couple of years back, with some crappy pics. Not as impressive as the Fark shots, but still pretty.

http://cellar.org/2006/nebicestorm6.jpg

"The cattle can. The ice has taken down their wired fencing and the only thing keeping them from romping around the countryside is the slippery surfaces they now have to manage. They must have cold headaches as they find something to graze on."

Uh-oh! Grain freeze!

charmzny: Ah yes, Ice Storm '98. Montreal, where I live, got hit pretty hard, but was a high priority for repairs and we only lost power for a few days. Wikipedia and Google turned up a few nice shots...

http://www.verglas.netc.net/photo-serie1.html
http://www.verglas.netc.net/photo-serie-5.html
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/ice/
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/ice/durham/index.shtm

Looks like there was way more ice buildup from this Nebraska storm, though... Yikes.