What is an ice storm?

icy storm occurs when frozen rain or hail covers the area. Roads freeze not only, but also ice coats trees, shrubs and power lines. Due to the weight of ice, the ice storm can cause huge damage to the area and download trees and power lines. Several past ice storms have caused farmers to lose whole crops or have been lost for many days. Above the ground, the temperature is close to frost. Ice storms are common in areas where one does not see a lot of snow because they do not require the same degree of cold that would produce snow.

, however, an ice storm can also affect areas that receive snow annually. In 1998, the icy storms of Northern New York and parts of the eastern Canada hit. It was extremely destructive and damaged many maple trees in Canada, which relies on maple sugar industry. It also caused energy loss for many people, About three million. Many of them had no energy renewed up to six weeks.

This ice storm and others are more demanding than snowstorms, because they can destroy so much with a relatively small amount of ice. In general, it must be defined as an ice storm, a quarter of the ice thumb (0.635 cm) must drop. A quarter of the thumb of snow, on the contrary, tends to be much easier to handle, even in regions where snow is unusual.

roads become dangerous to follow because they are frozen. People lose strength, crops and trees that can be downloaded. People can and have died due to limited approach to management and thus to medical facilities, or because they may not have insufficient heating systems in their homes or emergency generators.

icy storms in New York and Canada in 1998 caused damage about $ 3 million (USD). Loss of working days and stopped business can be incalculable. Other storms led to even greater financial damage. US President announced parts of Kansas zoneOU disaster after being hit by an ice storm in 2005. There were at least 39 million estimated damage.