unexplored (and wild) trails: February 2021

Ice storms are new to me. I've experienced freezing rain for a few hours. I've had it happen during the night but at that time the amount of freezing rain was minimal...so it's affects were mildly annoying. But this time it was a large amount of precipitation falling in the form of freezing rain for not just one storm but back to back storms, the second being the worst of the two. I knew some things to do like leaving the windshield wipers up on your car so they don't freeze to the window. And I knew that I should try to remove ice from the car each day in case I needed to use it, like for an emergency, so I would not be trying to remove 3 days of ice instead of 1 day's worth. Every winter we always insulate the water spickets. And when it freezes I usually cover my sensitive plants outside or bring them into the garage. Also having a stock of food that you could easily cook would be a good idea. But beyond that I didn't know much about ice storms. I now have an education!

According to the National Weather Service: Freezing rain occurs when snowflakes descend into a warmer layer of air and melt completely. When these liquid water drops fall through another thin layer of freezing air just above the surface, they don't have enough time to refreeze before reaching the ground. Because they are "supercooled," they instantly refreeze upon contact with anything that is at or below freezing (32 degrees F), creating a glaze of ice on the ground, trees, power lines, or other objects. Even light accumulations can cause dangerous travel, while heavier amounts can cause significant damage to trees and power lines. A significant accumulations of freezing rain lasting several hours or more is called an ice storm.

Snow starting falling for a day or so, then the ice storm started. Overnight we were blanketed with a 1/2" of ice to start with. The high temperatures didn't get above freezing for a few days. My thermometer on the porch read 27 degrees for a high for at least 2 days.

Trees. Apparently cold weather will cause some trees to explode by freezing the sap, because it contains water, which expands as it freezes, creating a sound like a gunshot. The sound is produced as the tree bark splits, with the wood contracting as the sap expands. I also learned that only a 1/4" of ice can increase the weight of branches by 30 times making them susceptible to breaking and falling. Also any preexisting conditions of the tree (now where have I heard of preexisting conditions before...?), such as rot inside or growing unevenly will cause problems as they accumulate ice. They can also makes a great thundering noise as large branches and whole trees fall to the ground. Even the small branches made noise as they hit other objects on their way down.

And I also learned that just 1/2" accumulation of ice on power lines can add 500 pounds of extra weight to them. Ice, trees, and power lines can be a disastrous situation during an ice storm.

The second storm came in and we gained another 1 1/2" of ice. We now had an accumulation of 2" of ice in some places.

The ice was beautiful to look at. It enveloped our world in hard, clear sheaths of ice on everything. It made an amazing world to look at and photograph. The pictures I took do not do it justice.

But there is a dichotomy with an ice storm. It is beautiful to look at but is also dangerous to deal with. And the danger started almost immediately the first night as trees around us started to explode and drop to the ground, or branches weighed down with the ice fell to the ground. We had at least 2 days and nights of listening to this occurring every 30 minutes. It made sleeping at night difficult. And during the day you made sure you never stood, walked or parked under a tree. Sleep happened in cat naps during the nights. If we went for a walk it was in the middle of the street and even at that you had to watch the area above you. Fortunately our branches never fell on our house, fence, cars or sheds but our neighbors were not so lucky. Driving was okay because our RAV 4 and the traction tires handled it quite well-but you had to be careful to stop 4x before you needed to just to make sure you didn't slide on the ice, and NEVER park under a tree or a side of a house where the ice could fall on your car as it accumulated or loosened as it melted. Even walking was dangerous because without traction it was soooo easy to slip and fall. We used our microspikes as we walked around, we originally bought them to take on trips to the snow but they sure came in handy at home now.

Then there's the issue of power-electrical power. Lines came down from the weight of the ice. Lines came down from the trees falling on them. Our electric company said it was the worst storm in 40 years and more than 2,000 lines were down, over 200 miles of larger transmission lines needed repair, 7 substations had been knocked out, 4,500 feeder lines to neighborhoods had come down, over 330,000 people were without power in the Portland area and they had to call in help from neighboring states to work on restoring power. Our power went out Thursday night, the 11th, as we were sleeping. It came on again for 12 hours on Saturday. Then it was out again until Wednesday the 17th. Thank God we have a gas stove in the livingroom, that kept us warm throughout the outage. As I write this, on the 19th, I still have friends that are without power and there is no estimate of when their power will be restored. Without power there is no internet, there is no refrigeration, no freezers, for me-no hot water, no oven but I do have a gas stove. Charging cell phones was something we did in the car...that was parked out in the icy street because of the roof with all the ice on it slanting towards the icy driveway where the car would have been parked-and you needed to wear microspikes to get to said car. It's a chore to live with ice.

Then after the ice storm things have to melt. That means all the ice that is above you has to come down and it doesn't all drip down in nice little drops. It's nice to see icicles drip small drops of water as they melt away; it quite another thing to have all the balls of ice fall from the fir trees above you, or to have the ice fall from the power lines above you, or from the neighbors trees. It sounded like we were under siege from heavy artillery blasts. And this went on for a few days...and nights. So instead of jumping up from bed to see if a branch hit our house we just stayed in bed listening to the ice war going on outside. Or if it was daytime, I went outside with my riding helmet on and lots of padding on my body-which was appropriate because it was still cold outside and heavy jackets were needed. The ground looked like I was standing in an ice cube machine.

And when all of that is done, there is the clean up. Because of this ice storm our city has a free tree debris drop off for it's residents at 3 local parks for at least 4 days. We took advantage of this and took 4 truck loads there. We still have things to clean up but the major stuff is gone. We figured that it would have taken 7.5 months for us to put all the debris from our fir trees in our green can. We also had to take out a tree out front that split in half so that would have added to that 7.5 months. Point is the free drop off was greatly appreciated. And I'm sure the other residents here would agree! I'm finishing up this post on the 20th and all I hear outside now is chainsaws and chippers. It'll be a while before all this mess is cleaned up.

I'm sure my experience pales in comparison to people who deal with this all the time, or with the people currently experiencing the cold and ice in the midwest and Texas.

But enough of the dangerous side of ice storms. It made for some beautiful icicles to look at in some interesting places. It covered all things and gave a different perspective looking at them. It brought the birds out to look for the birdseed that I threw on the snow/ice. I saw groupings of birds that I don't usually see as all were hungry and looking for food. Even Sammy the Squirrel came out to investigate his "new icy world". Enjoy the pictures and sorry there's so many of them.

Icicles-