Think of these next winter when you're struggling to clear the screen with an ice scraper!
snipurl.com/21ew2 [outdoors_webshots_com]
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I'll bet the local garage does a good trade in de-icer.....
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De-icer. Looks like a blow torch would be more handy ; ).
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Maybe they stock really, really, large aerosols......
[When they say "Illegally-parked cars will be immobilized" the Swiss sure don't mess about....]
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You wonder if they would ever be okay after that - especially a cloth top like the MG TF! Blimey.
I knew someone who went to work/live in Canada. It got so cold that you had to plug the car exhaust into a heater when you left it (something like that) and streets had a lower/sub-level for winter as it was too cold outside.
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Blimey
Been there in the summer and burned to a frazzle.
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Freezing rain?
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"Freezing rain?"
No, Global warming.
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Judging by the photos; wind-driven spray from the lake. The icing is very reminiscent of Polar ships.
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Judging by the photos; wind-driven spray from the lake.
Thats it. I saw some photos of the same scene taken earlier on, with a lot less ice but with spray being driven off the lake by high winds.
Putting my square head on, it would be interesting to get into one of the cars, get it started and see how long it took to thaw out under its own power.. I assume that Mondeo has a Quick-clear windscreen? The next challenge would be to get them unstuck from the road!
;o)
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Rich
I think your first problem might be getting the door open.... [The rubber seals would be in a bit of a mess afterwards if you hadn't put glycerine on them.]
It can't be that cold there or the [freshwater?] lake would have frozen solid - and have trucks driving across it - so those cars could just be the result of a frosty night and a stiff on-shore wind.
So, feet up in a nice warm cafe and wait for the sun to melt it all off - don't expect the MG to start though.
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These extreme icy conditions can result from a condition known as a temperature inversion. Basically it occurs when a layer of warm air is trapped between freezing ground level air and freezing snow clouds.
What happens is that snow crystals form in the clouds and begin to fall. These crystals are frozen pure water and when they pass through the warm air layer they melt into tiny droplets. When these very pure water droplets pass through the freezing air at low level they become supercooled, i.e. fall below their freezing point while remaining liquid.
When these supercooled drops hit any surface they instantly become contaminated by specs of dust etc and become solid ice.
I experenced one of these storms several years afo in this country and it was one of the scariest drives of my life. The road became an instant skating rink and my car was covered in ice within seconds.
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Spot on stackman.
I know Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source but this also explains it
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_storm
also
to a website that isn't allowed to be mentioned here - sorry Phil
Phil
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 11/03/2008 at 19:09
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So, umm, freezing rain... ;-)
I was told it can also be caused by rain falling out of a warm front into the cold sector, and becoming super-cooled before it hit the ground. Never seen it personally, though... do we even get it in England?
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"do we even get it in England?"
Yes - not exactly a "storm", but I can remember a couple of times, can't remember when! Must be about 15 years ago - I remember our telephone not working and going upstairs (having seen ice hanging off the trees in garden) and looking at phone line from bedroom window and being surprised by the ice hanging from it - as I looked the line snapped with a twang and fell to ground. Drove to work (after clearing a lot of "clear ice" from car) and saw all phone and electricity line with ice hanging from them - on return, quite a few were "down". Also no electricity at work because of fallen cables.
Experienced it in N . France a couple of years ago in Feb. Went into supermarket for wine, rain falling, very cold, came out and all one side of car covered in clear ice, very odd, couldn't open passenger door! Rain froze as it hit car.
Also found this
"Ice storms are much rarer in Britain, but the worst incident struck during the Second World War. In January 1940, the country was gripped by an Arctic freeze, when freezing rain fell for 2 days over southern Britain. Roads turned into ice rinks, and many places sounded like a battlefield with the explosion of splitting trees, timber and cables.
Pheasants and rabbits were frozen in ice and could be caught by hand, birds were stuck to branches and even brought down in mid-flight by ice on their wings. Traffic was brought to a standstill and some drivers were trapped in their cars by frozen doors and windows. But reports of the ice storm were censored to prevent the enemy getting any useful information about the disaster. Only after the end of the war was the scale of the icestorm revealed. "
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I used to carry a lighter in winter many years ago (think Mk 2 Escort) to warm the key to stick in the door lock to defrost it and get in. Not to mention the petrol filler cap but that required a bit more caution! I don't think it would work in this instance!
JH
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