ATOC 185 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Rocky Mountains, Ice Storm, Gulf Stream
22 Feb 2017
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Weighs down and snap power lines and trees (causing power outages) Caused by supercooled water: water that exist below 0 degrees celsius because it doesn"t have any particles (ice nuclei) in the air to start the freezing process. The ice nuclei starts the formation of ice crystals when water is below freezing point. Supercooled water travels in the atmosphere as a liquid until it hits a surface which contains ice nuclei instantly freezing the water and covering anything it impacts with ice. Supercooled water impacts trees and electricity lines/towers turns into ice. This ice piles up and creates a heavy charge making the structure its on viable to break. In a ice storm, the atmosphere does not have any dust particles present in the air to start the freezing process of the rain before it hits the ground. Occur in very narrow (10 to 160km) bands (occur along river valleys)
