Better break out the chains…
It’s time for a quickie Picture Day Wednesday here at The Nest, since I’ve been in major 
slacker mode much of the week and am trying to catch up on things…
If you’re looking at that photo above and wondering if that’s really a sheet of ice covering my street, let me assure you that you are very much correct. Fortunately, that picture is from December of 2010… we’ve been lucky to avoid the nasty winter weather this year save for the frequent dustings of snow the skies have dropped the past two weeks that quickly melt. But since I live in that middle ground between the frozen north and the moderate south, my neck of the woods is no stranger to getting slammed with the dreaded “wintry mix”… you know, that stuff that shows up in that funky peach color on your weatherman’s radar. The hazardous conditions above were the result of freezing rain.
At least the sun’s glare looks pretty.
Freezing rain and sleet are caused by what we (ahem) meteorologists call an inversion in the atmosphere. Temperatures normally drop with altitude. An inversion occurs where temps will actually rise with height. Freezing rain will fall as liquid rain due to the warmer upper air temperatures only to freeze upon contact with the subfreezing surface. Sleet will freeze before it hits the ground due to the inversion being higher up, creating small chunks of ice that can accumulate like snow. Both will have you reaching for the rock salt to de-ice your sidewalks and driveways… unless you live in a state where trying to brave the winter conditions is considered illegal…
Not that I’m bitter or anything…
I’ll hopefully be more prepared next week. I might even tell the story about what’s going on at that house with the dumpster…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
You should have gotten your ice skates out….I myself have always had weak ankles. Shucks.
I never learned to ice skate. I didn’t even try rollerblades. Only traditional rollerskating for me!
Even that I couldn’t master. But I could ride a bike. That counts.
Is that your car after you braked all the way in the distance and finally spun to a stop in the foreground?
No, that is much too swanky to be my car! It belonged to my next door neighbor’s daughter. Before she moved out a few years ago, I was glad to have a car parked in front of the house while I was at work at night. My car stays warm and cozy and ice free in the garage…
Holy cow! Looks like you would need a Zamboni just to get to the end of your street! We’ve only had freezing rain a few times in my life and our streets didn’t get that icy. Mostly the ice gathered on trees and knocked them over or broke branches off. Ice like in your pictures would totally cripple our area! It does look pretty with the sun shining on it though.😀
I wish I had some pictures of the ice storm of 2006… it was so damn pretty and yet destructive at the same time. We had a heavy downpour of rain that night while the temp was in the upper 20’s. Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark!
Since I haven’t lived in an “icy” state in years, I’d be tempted to pull out my ice skates and pretend it’s that old pond I always skated on as a kid, all the while keeping my fingers crossed that the ice wouldn’t crack and sink me to a frigid, miserable death. Good times.
But assuming the roads here ever freeze over and I have to take the kids to school or something? Oh yeah, the Zamboni would definitely me my vehicle of choice. Any time I’m at a hockey game, I have to fight back the temptation to knock the Zamboni driver off and take that sucker for a wild ride across the ice. Go team! Literally, go! Run for cover! 😀
I would love to drive a zamboni too! Put the pedal to the metal and top-end it at 10 mph! Vroom vroom!!!!
I think maybe we’ve gotten off pretty lightly this year. It’s about time! We’ve had a few bad ones in a row, so I think we deserve a not-so-bad one this time. Yay for El Nino!
Any year when my street doesn’t become a skating rink is a good year! The city trucks never bother with our subdivision since it’s usually melted by the time we make it to the top of the priority list. We have a neighbor with a bobcat that will plow the snow off our streets, but nobody around here has a salt truck…
Wow! I really want to see ice on the ground just once. So temperate here. LOL!
Maybe I can get with Superman and we can tilt the globe a bit away from the sun for you! One of those trivia questions that catches people out around here is when is the earth the farthest away from the sun. it’s during our summer and your winter…. so you all should be plenty iced in during July! 😉
Beautiful unless you have to drive in it. Thats awesome about your meteorological description of freezing rain.
I’m glad after 20 years I still remember anything from those weather classes!
But if it was or is a passion, you will never forget…or I’m just speaking nonsense. 😉
It was a passion until all of the college level calculus and physics soured me on it. I am happy to live a life where I’ve never needed to recall my knowledge of differential equations…
Between the ages of five and eight my daughter wanted to be a meteorologist.
It is raining in my neck of the woods today. That is always big news around here and causes people to get excited and drive like they’re bat shit crazy.
My cat is confused because I won’t turn the water off outside like I do in the shower. He isn’t too bright, but he is as smart as he needs to be.
Fun post ES.
Hello there!
Howdy!