Ice

The weather in Milo, Maine is the worst today.  Snow going to freezing rain going to rain.  In honor of that, I thought I would discuss one of the pitfalls of living in the North where we have a real winter.

That pitfall, in a word is ice.

Snow is pretty and can be dangerous.  The worst thing about snow for me is early in a snowstorm, especially a snowstorm that is putting down snow quickly.  If the snow is coming down fast, and road crews are not talking care of it quickly enough, it can be dangerous driving. 

But much as I hate driving in snow, I hate driving in ice all the more.  There is not much defense against ice.  I have studded tires on my little tank which does help a lot.  Chains on your tires can help, too.  They grip and break up the ice a little.  But where 4-wheel drive can help greatly against snow, it is not so helpful in ice.  You start to slide, good driving habits can help, but, more often than not, you are sunk. 

It is way to easy to slide off the road when it is icy.  And wet ice is the worst.  Wet ice is extra slick making that slide much more likely to happen. 

And ice can be deceiving.  We talk about black ice a lot in Maine.  That is ice that just looks like wet road.  So you don't know you are in trouble until you start to slide. 

So those of you who do real winter driving, be careful out there.  And those of you in more temperate climes, enjoy the fact you don't have to deal with ice.

Be seeing you.