2009-2010 Winter: Rime Ice Twice, Deep Snow, Ice Storm, Optics, Freezing Fog and Steam Page 2
Same tree as the day before, but now there is 1/2 inch of ice on all that rime ice. Crazy! Froze the rime ice right in place.
You can see this made the damage far worse than it would have been with just 1/2 inch of ice.
I looked at the radar estimated precip and decided to drive up to the 1.5 inch max between Dunlap and Soldier Iowa. I noticed Denison's temp went from 27-32 at the onset of the rain. So I wasn't certain how much ice accumulated up there. A lot did. It didn't take long either for it to do this, as that band of rain was in and out in probably 6 hours or less. Near and on the ground there wasn't much rime ice. That is pretty much entirely freezing rain ice on the grass. The gravel roads here were impassable. I know, I pulled onto one and just about couldn't get back off of it. It's the stuff that if there is any crown to the surface, your vehicle will just slide sideways, even if you are stopped. It was extremely hard to even walk on the roads.
I thought this was off a guide wire but this one was not. See that groove in the middle of it, about the size of a finger? That is all the bigger the branch was that this was on. It just had rime ice on it and got over an inch of freezing rain stuck to it all. This is easily the thickest ice I've seen this close to home as well. This winter has it all.
Some tree/plant/bush thing. Look at the blob of ice around that one left of my hand.
It is always amazing to see the landscape covered in ice like this. Walking on this snow was tough. It's just smooth as hell ice that you for the most part do not break through. It sucks when you happen to break through. Your shin goes against this sharp thick edge of ice that has no give in it.
I don't think there was much rime ice on this. Just look how clear that left branch is. Just a bunch of freezing rain.
Not thinking much rime ice on this stuff either.
This is a guide wire to a radio tower. Very obvious where there was some rime ice and where there wasn't. So cool to see how much weight that caused on things.
Looking at the gravel road was so misleading. It didn't look like much ice was there, even though you knew there had to be because you couldn't walk on the stuff. It just tends to magnify the rocks. You get down closer and you can see how thick it was. Just look at the "wall of ice" of those two middle larger rocks. Everything had that much ice on it.
You really didn't want to drive down this road. Tyler was here now and we decided to just walk down to the radio tower. Get away from dead center of the thing and you were constantly slipping. Dead center was slick obviously, but it was more flat. Any curve to it and you were slipping.
Wide angle lenses getting a work out.
This broke over tree mass was insane. Extreme ice accumulation on those branches, thanks to thick rime ice and thick freezing rain both. I've seen some ice storms now, but never have I seen masses of ice like was around here on things.
Again ice was magnifying things. Didn't seem that thick of ice till you got a closer look. Those pine needles are tiny. Look how much ice is around one, like that one at the top. This whole thing was pretty sheltered with all the branching up above it.
Below this mass you can see how the top of the snow was covered. That is what you had for a walking surface everywhere. It can be hard to even kick down into it for traction.
This is now the 21st, the day after the images on the previous page. I decided to head over toward the Harlan area and check it out. The above was at a truck stop on I80. Not sure why a tree still has some leaves on it! I mean really. Been a brutal winter.
I'd say the Harlan area was as bad as any or worse.
Large tree branch snapped over for obvious reasons. In Harlan now. The globs of ice on the smaller branches off of it was insane. You only wanted to get so close for so long as you'd have a massive branch above you with the same thing going on. And in the breeze they will sit there and sway up and down. You think, if that fell on me it'd drive me into the pavement.
I had to reach up there a ways and try and get this one. Some globs were 4.5 inches across. Seemed everything was between that and 3 inches.
Strange to say the least. Impressive strength for such a young tree with such weight on it.
Crazy crazy.
This farm north of Harlan was so cool, thanks to this fence that in spots had snow about to the top of it, with it all covered in really thick ice. Walking here was like walking on a glacier. At least with this you have some hope of kicking down through it in spots. You had to do that where the drifting sloped down at all.
My camera royally pisses me off on this whole deal though. These all looked sweet as hell on the camera LCD. Hell if I can get them to look like that on the pc. No matter what I do to them, I can't get the look they had on the LCD. They are all just extremely flat. So annoying, you're like, just give me what they looked like on the damn camera. Should have shot some as jpg on there to see if that is all it was and not just the LCD making them look better than they were.
I felt a little dumb out here right next to the busy highway. I kept having to make it obvious I had a camera or it would just look like I was someone taking a pee.
The two drifts covering the road up to this place were massive. No one was here obviously. Again, real hard to walk around on. The ice is so damn clear, it is easy to forget looking at these, that you can't walk down this mound of snow. It felt like it was 10 feet tall out there on the edge, but sure doesn't look that tall on here. It is taller than it looks on here for sure. Consider I'm standing on it looking down at an angle and out. Seemed the top of it was about even with the top of the red on that barn. Me standing on it and looking out with a wide angle lens makes it seem a lot shorter than that top red area. Then consider the road is lower and going down over there. Anyway, I walked out there to the top of it and briefly thought of going down it to the road. Looked like bone breaks in the making so I turned around and came back this way to get back to the van. The wind blasted snow drifts tend to pack hard to begin with. You coat that with an inch or so of solid ice and it really can be hard to kick into for traction. Hopefully this is better illustrated on video.
This one makes the drift look shorter too. Maybe the barn was extra tall lol. Wish I had stood by it and got a shot now. Seems it can't possibly be 10 feet tall now.
Trees in Harlan. I didn't explore Harlan all that much. This whole area of trees by the Pamida were toast though. The one right of the shot down, those left side of shot were all toast.
January 22nd now. This was wild. It was back in Blair, hills south of town as temps warmed above 32 a bit and the wind was blowing ice off the trees. This was highly strange. Look at them all dangling the same way. It looked like decorations hanging off a Christmas tree. It was amazing with the wind that they were staying there like that. I never looked real close, but should have. I don't get how they all did that. The ice didn't form that way. They were somehow getting snagged like that as the ice on the branch fell off.
Also what was fun now was the "core punching". Winds were gusting over 40mph. The trees were raining large chunks of ice. As you drove through areas, if you timed it right, it would sound like large hail was hitting the car. It was staggering how long these trees had a supply to rain down ice, as hard as it was coming down at times. Seriously it would look like the most severe hail storm. Then the wind gust would pass and it would let up. I shot some video of that adventure, including an on foot track into the "storm"/trees...hard hat included obviously lol. I actually have some cool tree footage from this winter. An early icing was cool as high winds rocked these trees next to my parent's house. It was sick how far they'd sway. Should be worth adding to the 2010 DVD for sure. Also got some breaking ones with this last one.
Well it is mid-way through February. I hope I don't need to make some other winter post. It can all go away now! Please.
