A big winter storm system has the ability to make the normal everyday routine a chain reaction: bridges icy in the middle of the day, tree limbs falling off throughout the evening, and a chilly house in the morning. To most communities in the South, and far over to the East, it is not merely snow, but ice, and the duration of its tenure.
Winter Storm Fern is predicted to cause a combination of snow, sleet and freezing rain along the Southern Plains to the Appalachians, Carolinas and Mid Atlantic. Surface that may appear wet when pushed by the cold air behind the storm may freeze quickly.
1. Ice does not always end up being a driving problem, but an outage problem.
The weight of freezing rain is added to any surface it touches, whether it be tree branches, power lines, and even canopies, so the effect is not on slippery roads anymore, rather the mass destruction of its accumulations. Clues on what such ice accretion range can cause join the dots: even the less heavy glazing can still entrap travel, but heavier ice increases the chances of significant tree destruction and greater power outages.
With this configuration, the houses in the most frozen-rain prone regions might just have to work around hours or even days without a stable power supply, particularly with colder air coming in and after the storm.
2. The timings of the storm prefer recurrent refreeze hazards.
Wintry precipitation will spread Friday parts of Texas and Oklahoma into Arkansas and the Mid-South, and then move eastward on Saturday and Sunday towards the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic. That increased period is important as temperatures are expected to be low enough to allow ice to continue existing, therefore, roads and sidewalks are dangerous even after the most reliable rain. Commuter lanes that normally rebound well in events where there is warmer climate can remain impaired after the overnight lows maintain the surfaces at temperatures below zero degrees.
3. Equipment is the biggest headache facing the South, rather than the amount of snow.
A small amount of snow or sleet can create excessive slowness in areas that have a small number of plows, scarce capacity to treat the roads, and little salt available. The latter gap occurs quickest in elevated roadways, such as bridges and overpasses, where cold air encircles the pavement, and icing may first come. The change in traction that drivers need to be the most aware of is when it occurs suddenly, especially at the freezing point when wet-appearing lanes could be covering black ice.
4. Highway inconveniences can trickle off.
Huge hubs are directly in the potential crossroad of storm in Texas, the lower Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee Valley and in the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic. In cases where freezing rain comes into play in the airport business, the delays may be experienced far beyond the icing area, particularly where the de-icing and ground activities are slouched. According to the National Weather Service, one of the greatest annual safety concerns is the weather-related vehicle crashes and that is why the avoidance of unnecessary journeys during a mixed-precipitation event can be described as the safest method of dealing with the last-minute driving problem rather than any of the last-minute driving methods.
5. The ideal collision is cold-air-and-moisture collision.
The combination of two factors coming together is the presence of a very strong push of Arctic air that dives south and another storm system that feeds the moisture in the Gulf. The consequence is that you have a thin slice of a shifting battlefield in which a minor change in the temperature in the air up in the air determines whether or not a region receives snow, sleet, cold rain, or freezing rain. This is the reason the short-range updates are most important within 24-48 hours prior to the arrival of the most severe conditions, particularly along the rain/ice line where the effects may go from irritant to destructive.
6. The second wave of home problems can be made by cold following the storm.
As it gets extremely cold behind the line, the danger image extends beyond the roads. Prolonged periods of subfreezing make it more likely to find frozen pipes and the deficit of power will be more severe as the sources of heat are reduced. Some precautions of safe warmth indoors and the availability of necessities should be considered as important in regions where heavy icing is anticipated as much as the monitoring of the falling snow.
The combination of ice, which makes the trees and lines weightier and cold, which delays recovery is the headline risk of Fern. The lesson to be learned here is that sometimes the most glamorous radar images do not have long-lasting effects.
The most helpful habit to follow among swath friendly people in Texas and Oklahoma all the way to Tennessee Valley, Carolinas, to some parts of the mid-Atlantic is to update on the local news as often as possible and plan their travel and power usage as the rain-to-ice line tightens.
